MLK Day

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and as I was driving home from Dublin tonight, I was listening to one of his speeches on the radio. I think I saw it called "A Drum Major for Peace" somewhere. I also heard it Friday as well at CSU Monterey Bay during a service learning thing. I've actually somehow never heard this particular speech before and I have to say, both Friday and tonight, it gave me chills. It was really a good reminder of the unlikely turn my life has taken in the past year and a half. I would say just the year I've been in AmeriCorps out here, but I think my changes started before that. My last sememster at WKU, Fall of 2003, I took a class from a man named Dr. David Ducoff. The class was called Race, Class, Ethnicity and Gender. That single class impacted me more than any other class I've ever had. I got an A, and it was probably the hardest college class I ever had (keep in mind, I didn't make a lot of As in college--could have if I'd ever cared enough, but why care, when you can not study and make Bs and Cs). Not only did it impact me, but I learned more in that one class than probably all my other sociology classes combined maybe, cause it basically talked about how all that other crap that I supposedly learned about became personal. How it actually affected not just society, but the people in it. It took sociology and made it personal to me for the first time in my life. I saw society as individuals from all walks of life instead of ambiguous groups of people. I also learned more history of our "great" country that I ever have before too. Things that at some times made me ashamed to be an American, but also grateful for the opportunities I've had in my life.

Anyway, I just think this is a great speech. ...say that I was a drum major for justice...say that I was a drum major for peace.... That is my favorite line. Anyway, I'm glad I heard this speech this weekend. I've never thought twice about MLK Day, other than getting a day off school or work. I'm glad that people like Dr. King, even in his death, can affect the lives of so many people today. I'm glad that his words and his life has affected mine.

Here's the end of the speech....take some time to read it. FYI, this was exactly 2 months before his death. The speech was delivered on Feb 4, 1968...he died April 4, 1968.

And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.

If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. (Yes) And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes)

I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that's all I want to say.

If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.