Here are some of my musings on King’s impact. This is not polished and not complete, but they are my thoughts.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY

Today is a federal holiday - more than a day off from work - but a celebration of the life, work and impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a preacher/teacher/speaker, civil rights leader, author, father and husband who helped to change the course of American society at a volatile time in our history. As I sit here thinking about his life and looking at my 15 month-old son playing on the floor, King’s legacy comes to mind. It’s been 44 years since King’s assassination in 1968, and we as a national and international community are still talking about his ability to galvanize and polarize a nation around civil rights issues and the true meaning of humanity, equality and justice.

On this past Friday, I was on my way to PA for a meeting. While waiting for Amtrak, I stopped off at the magazine shop and picked up a copy of Success Magazine. A few pages in, I found a powerful quote by Dr. King, “Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” As someone seeking to make an impact in the lives of our young people (and older people) that quote hit me hard. It’s still something I’m “chewing” on. I thought then, “there is so much about King that I do not know…”

Shamefully, I will admit that the first time I heard King’s entire “I have A Dream” speech was just last year. I watched it on Youtube and was amazed at seeing him at the center of an extremely large gathering on the Washington Mall on August 28, 1963. Many will say his dream hasn’t come true. Others believe that it has. What do you think?

LEARNING FROM HISTORY

The older I become, the more meaning history has to me. The lives of those who lived in the past seem so distant to us… but one day we ourselves will join this temporal landscape. I guess it’s an inherent trait for the young to not be terribly concerned with the past… until they themselves cross the threshold into older adulthood. Yet, many of the situations we face in our present may have in fact been resolved in the past. And if we lose sight of the past, while being in the midst of our busy lives, then we will be doomed to repeat its mistakes.

A THOUSAND SHOULDERS

You cannot talk about King without talking about those who influenced him, those who stood with him (and maybe even those who opposed him). King is quoted: “All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” Warren, Mervyn A.; Taylor, Gardner C. (2008). King Came Preaching: The Pulpit Power of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. InterVarsity Press. p. 174. ISBN 083083253X)

So King wouldn’t have been who he was if not for influencers and peers such as his parents, Howard Thurman, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and many others. Thinking about King, the words of the English poet John Donne come to mind: “No man is an island, entire of itself… any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.” King stands on a thousand shoulders of those who came before him, those who walked with him and those who opposed him. This is also our reality. It is not only the good times that makes us, but the times of opposition as well.

A NEW DAY

So here we are on January 16, 2012. This is a new day with new challenges and new opportunities. Just looking at the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. shows that dreams can come to pass, even if it is “piece by piece”. We still live in a paradox, where certain aspects of King’s Dream has come to pass in certain context, while it is still a distant arrival in other contexts. There are obvious and not-so-obvious examples of this in our society. We only have to watch the evening news to get a glimpse of this reality. In this moment, I choose to highlight an unusual example from the FilmMaking community.

The new movie Red Tails, releases this Friday, January 20th. Thinking back to King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, King spoke of a world where people of different ethnic backgrounds could work together for the common good. George Lucas (one of Hollywood’s top directors of Star Wars/Indiana Jones fame) has spent over 20 years trying to bring Red Tails to the screen (a story about the African American Tuskegee Airmen who helped turn the tide in World War 2).  While on one hand, King’s Dream came true - Lucas working with African Americans (including the surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen) to bring this story to the world; on the other hand King’s Dream is still far off - Hollywood studios refused to help fund the film because the cast was primarily African American. This choice wasn’t made on the merit of the film, but on their inability to see how a positive film about African Americans could be marketed to the general public. Read more about it here on Huffingtonpost.com

I find this a very interesting example. An a writer/author/producer/director who is seeking to impact the lives of young people and general society through my creative pursuits with Speedsuit Powers and other projects, the Red Tails story AND the story surrounding its production/distribution is very important to me. Visual storytelling is a very powerful medium which intentionally or unintentionally crafts the realities of us all; and Hollywood is one of the most influential visual storytelling industries in the world.

I can’t help but think about King’s legacy and how it paved the way for African Americans to be involved in every aspect of societal life - including arts and entertainment. Red Tails, in a sense, is a testament to King’s ideals.

A KING’S LEGACY

I believe that King’s desire was for humanity to come together in order to strive for significance.  Can we dream together and help one another achieve our dreams? It’s about the content of our character and not the color of our skin. Are we individuals with a moral compass? Are we individuals with integrity? Are we honest? Are we willing to help one another grow and develop?

In the beginning of this post, I mentioned King’s legacy and my son, Noble. Legacy is defined as: “Anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.” Really, we all have legacies. The question is whether or not what we leave behind will be beneficial or detrimental to those who come behind us.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech speaks to me because there was a time when I didn’t have a dream. There was a time, when I was a teenager, where I felt like I had no future. And it was during that time that I attempted suicide. Now, here I am, years later with a wife and son. Here I am - a Storyteller who uses all of my gifts and talents to help others discover their God-given dream and purpose. Here I am as an author, artist, musician, preacher, teacher and filmmaker - standing on the shoulders of those who came before me… family, mentors, people I don’t even know… even standing on the shoulders of King. And now, my son, as he grows, will learn about King’s impact and will press forward to make his own indelible mark on the world.

As I continue to learn about King, what I do know is that for us to be significant, our dreams must be united together.

Do you have a dream? Here’s a poem from my first book, Transition: Breaking Through the Barriers.

What about your dreams?

What do you think about when you hear the name Martin Luther King, Jr.?

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Filed under: Risks and Opportunities • Sociology

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