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How many people reading this post can say that their lives overlapped Dr. King's? I can't. I was born in 1970. Now, I did grow up knowing about the things of the 60's, such as Dr. King and JFK and the moon landing and, most especially, the Vietnam War, where my daddy was an Army officer and got several medals--all before I was born. The 70's reeled with the aftermath of the 60's.
But that is ancient history for our children. Is Dr. King any more relevant, any more immediate, to them than FDR or Truman were to my generation? Good people, important people, but having nothing to do with now?
Probably. But it doesn't follow that history has to be irrelevant. For the most part, our children can't even imagine a world with the kids of racial separation that Dr. King's world suffered through. I mean, separate water fountains? How absurd is that? We live in a small midwestern town and my kids go to school with African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and white kids from both the US and elsewhere. And there are only 4000 people in our whole town. This is normal for most kids, and that's a good thing.
If you want to try to convey to your kids why this day matters, why this man matters, I suggest that you start by watching the entire "I Have A Dream" speech. There's more to it than we usually quote, and it's stunningly brilliant.
Here are some things I want my kids to know about Dr. King:
--He was intellectually brilliant. I've read many of his writings, and the man has an amazing grip of history, sociology, anthropology, economics, and of course, Scripture. That "Dr." in his name is a PhD from Boston College.
--He did what he did because of his faith. My family happens to share the same faith with Dr. King, and he is certainly an example to us, but I think we can all agree that a person who stands up for what he deeply believes is to be admired. In a similar vein, I would emphasize tyo my own children that Dr. King's job was a minister. He was not a politician. He was a pastor.
--It wasn't easy for him to stand up to the law, to the culture, and even to the people he hoped to help. Not everybody agreed with the things he said or the things he did. Some people even made death threats against him and his family. But sometimes we have to choose between what is right and what is easy.
--He might not be such an American hero if he had lived. This may be too much for younger kids to understand, but older ones will get the concept. His next area of what he perceived to be injustice was American participation in the Vietnam War. That was a whole different battlefield from Civil Rights. Not more or less important, just a different set of themes, values, ideals, and participants. I have mixed feelings about this era in history, but I do know a lot about what Communist governments do to their people, and I'm not sure I would have gone with Dr. King on this one.
--His birthday is January 15, not the 3rd Monday in January.
If you're looking for things to do with your kids to commemorate this day, Kaboose, a crafts and activities site, has a lot of fun stuff. And remember, we can't stop working toward the dream that Dr. King so ably articualted. We have to work for it, fight for it, in our own way, in our own day, right down to the youngest of us.
3 comments:
Beautiful post and, as we of that era used to say, "Right on!" However, your kids should also know that Dr. King did indeed die for his beliefs, and many who agreed with him on civil rights were ostracized. Among those, many who wore their hair long and opposed, as did he, the Vietnam War, were ostracized and not a few were actually beaten.
Back then, that was the price of "thinking modern" and the cost paid so that the near-idyllic (as I see it) hometown you now enjoy could actually exist today.
I was a young adult in the mid-'60s and kept my beliefs under wraps by wearing my hair short and dressing conservatively, so as to "blend in." Of course, my being in the army reserve and later the national guard helped my "cover" -- and no doubt kept my sorry butt alive.
While I respect those who served in Vietnam, I still feel the war was poorly run and a terrible waste that only benefitted those who always come out on top in such exploits: the ones who make the war materiel and their financiers.
At any rate, you have stirred my pot of memories, and I thank you for that.
Thank you for your thoughts and memories. I actually agree with you about the Vietnam War being poorly run--what is it about our military leaders that we're always fighting the last war, and not the current one? And I know I can only form my opinions 2nd-hand, but I've done a lot of study of 20th Century Communism, and I can't criticize too badly any movement (including that war) that attempted to stand up to it.
As far as I'm concerned, Dr. King was a martyr, which is why my church celebrates his day on April 4--the day of his martyrdom, not January 15.
Thanks again for your input, and thank you for your service to our country.
I agree, lovely post!
It is so true that our kids don't understand the segregation and discrimination that went on. Truthfully I don't remember it either - I was two when Dr. King was killed. But kids - many of them - have no concept of what things were like then.
I taught a lesson on the Constitution in my son's 5th grade class in September, and the first issue the kids brought up was the abolition of slavery. They all thought it was part of the original document - they assumed that everyone was free from the beginning. It was awesome to hear that they assumed everyone was equal, and we had a great discussion on the subject.
We did an exercise to demonstrate how voting rights changed over the years which was very revealing - out of the class of 15 kids, only two were white boys. It was quite a sight to see those two boys standing, and to see the kid's faces when I explained that in the beginning they were the ones who made the laws for everyone. Then the rest of the boys were allowed to stand. And then finally the girls (who made up the majority of the class). It was a very clear demonstration of the progress we've made.
Now, I don't assume we've reached the goals that Dr. King so eloquently spoke of, but we are making progress. There definitely will be more hurdles to overcome, but hopefully they will get progressively smaller as time goes on.
Thank you for such a great posting!
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