MLK Would be Proud...

I don’t know about you but I am still processing Monday’s  messages and their importance.  It certainly was a day filled with words and we weren’t the only people listening. 

Monday morning the President delivered his eloquent inaugural speech in our nation’s capital with throngs of people as far as eye could see,

Civil Rights is Not a Love Story..

then the early afternoon held Natureman’s youngest's talk "Civil Rights is Not a Love Story: Martin Luther King, the U.S. and the Long Struggle for Black Freedom in America" at the John F. Kennedy Center in Richland Center to a full room of listeners  and our evening culminated at La Crosse’s packed Viterbo University’s Performing Arts Center for the city’s Martin Luther King’s  Day celebration.  

Each event echoed the Reverend King’s message of ‘community’ of us working together to make ‘our’ lives better. Change starts at the community level and becomes national policy. Phrases like a‘nation of takers’ replaced by a ‘nation of givers’ continue to resonate. Commitments of social programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security...  Powerful words.

Yet,  of course, there were the complainers. Complaints of the President’s tone,  that his words were an ode to Big Government, omissions to speak of the deficit and defense spending.  But even Newt concurred that it was "classically American, emphazing hard work, self- reliance and doing things together." Natureman and I thought the President's speech was inspiring as were all the speakers we heard this past Monday.

It was a great day to be together with 'community.'  May we have many more such opportunities and the desire and energies to make this country a better place through working on social and economic injustice. It is up to us to speak up for what is right. It takes a community... As the poster says: Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. Isn't it time we make it a REALITY?

Lift Every Voice