King for a Day

MLK day is a special day.

In the NBA.

MLK is not a special day.

Where I live.

I’m not talking about my house.

I’m talking about my city.

And no I don’t live in Arizona.

That’s a state.

I live in an area where Monday came.

And Monday went.

And nothing special happened.

I’m not really sure what was supposed to happen.

But nothing did.

At least nothing that put the special in this special day.

Thanks to google I did find a handful of events across the country which tried to pay tribute to Mr. King.

100,000 people came out for a march in San Antonio.

They were expecting 200,000.

82 people attended a rally in Thomson, Georgia.

83 if you count the speaker.

An ice rink in Cleveland offered free admission from Noon to 5.

I guess you had to pay full price the rest of the day.

While in Denver, the Martin Luther King Jr. African-American Rodeo of Champions came to town.

Whatever that is.

I’ve always considered myself a lover of history.

But I am far from a historian.

I was born in 1967.

So I missed all but one year of Martin Luther King’s life.

And unfortunately I don’t remember any of it.

But thanks to the internet, we can relive history.

Until SOPA kicks in.

If there is one moment that defines the life of Martin Luther King Jr., it has to be the speech.

The dream speech.

August 28, 1963.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

According to Wikipedia, the crowd was estimated at 200,000.

I’m sure more than a million said they were there.

Like you, I’ve seen clips of the speech hundreds of times.

But I don’t recall the last time I watched it all.

From start to finish.

So a few minutes ago I changed that.

At least I tried to.

The first link I clicked on got me nowhere.

“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by SME.”

Shame on you SME.

Whoever you are.

Thankfully youtube doesn’t play by the same rules.

Yet.

I expected the speech to be much longer.

But it wasn’t.

Just 16 minutes.

And 11 seconds.

King was introduced as “the moral leader of our nation.”

And throughout his speech he lived up to that billing.

Exceeded it.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Each sentence more meaningful than the one before.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.

From his first word to his last, you couldn’t help but connect with the passion in his voice.

The power in his words.

We've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

And the dreams that he had for this country.

This world.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

It was truly poetry in motion.

The message just as timely today as it was on that day.

Especially with so many people in this great country still hurting.

And hoping.

The speech took on a life of its own when King was assassinated less than five years later.

Unfortunately we seem to live in a world where your stock goes way up after your body temp goes way down.

Morrison.  Joplin.  Hendrix.  Dean.  Clemente.

Cobain.  Winehouse.

And whoever is next.

The legend seems to grow well after the artist is gone.

Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if Mr. King was still with us.

I hate to think that Martin Luther King Jr. became special on April 4, 1968.

The day he left us.

If Mr. King saw us today, I’m not sure he would recognize the world we live in.

There’s no question that we have made great strides.

But I’m not sure we will ever get there.

I’m not even sure where there is.

But for at least one of our 365 days every year.

We can dream.