The Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Welcome to Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor in America. I’m thrilled that you signed up to read my newsletter, and I hope that together, we can make a difference. I don’t feel worthy to write about Dr.King, or try in any way to interpret his words or place them in the context of what is happening today. He was a child prodigy who graduated from Morehouse College at 19, and promptly set out to make change, and did so beyond what even he might have imagined during his short life. I’m also not particularly thrilled to join the chorus of those who extoll his virtues on this one day in January, the approximate day of his birth, 94 years ago on January 15, 1929. And I can’t help but remember those many members of Congress who fought against marking the day of his birth with a national holiday and a day of service to our nation. It took over three decades of marches, petitions and Congressional wrangling for President Reagan to finally sign the bill into law in 1983, and the first MLK Day was not celebrated until the third Monday of January, 1986. Yet today, two states, Alabama and Mississippi, embarrassingly celebrate “King-Lee” Day, insisting on putting the Confederate general, Robert E. Lee, a slave owner and traitor to his country on par with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I know we’re currently arguing about what to teach our children in history class, but let us now agree on at least one fact: the North won. Late yesterday, the historian and professor at Boston College, Heather Cox Richardson wrote a fascinating post on her Substack newsletter, “Letters From an American, which told the story of heroes, both ordinary and extraordinary, who simply made a choice to do the right thing. And she segued into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s prophetic last speech, given the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had stopped to support striking sanitation workers. You can read the entire speech here. This talk of heroes inspired me to add to today’s discourse a few of the many words of Dr. King that are particularly meaningful to me and this newsletter. I stumbled upon (via a 2018 Washington Post piece) an article he wrote for the Morehouse College student newspaper in 1947 that is apropos to the post I just wrote a few days ago on the importance of critical thinking:
You can read the full article titled “The Purpose of Education”, here. ____________________________________________________________________ It seems like I discover something new and compelling about the life and words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. every time I read more about his writings and life work. And this knowledge helps me better understand why we all should embrace and practice the idea of public service. Please leave your thoughts in the Comment Section below. As always, I appreciate your interest and thoughtful ideas that make our Crime and Punishment community a welcoming space to visit and chat. There’s no time like the present to become a free or paid subscriber…and there’s no time like the New Year to Upgrade your free subscription to paid — it’s easy, and will allow me to continue and expand Crime and Punishment. Thanks in advance for your support! You’re on the free list for Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America. All posts are free for now, but if you’d like to get ahead of the crowd, feel free to support my work by becoming a paid subscriber. |
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