Kyle Howard
Literature
Dr. Ellis
March 20, 2013
Blog
Post
Martin
Luther King Jr. was an outstanding man and lived in a time where society around
him was not quite outstanding. King stood up for equality and not what was good
for him but what was good for the entire group. In my opinion, Martin Luther
King Jr. is one of the most revered men in the history of this great country.
Unfortunately, my discussion will not be about King but will relate to a speech
I heard about some of his ideals.
Last
week I attended a keynote address held by Dr. Cameron Carter and he titled his
speech “The Post Racial Blues”. Dr. Carter talked about King’s “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail” and focused on what the letter meant in today’s society. Carter
opened with various questions like “How would the letter be read today?” and “Has
the view on Martin Luther King Jr. changed?” It made me wonder and I began to
think about how our society currently views Dr. King and the efforts he made. One
of the texts I read brought me back to the changes that King wanted to make and
it was entitled “Serving up Hope” by Stephanie Shapiro. The article by Shapiro
talks about a man named Galen Sampson who reminded me of Dr. King. Sampson is
an extremely hard-working man who is giving former drug users a second chance.
Sampson owns a restaurant and hires and trains former drug users to become
chefs and to have the ability to run a restaurant of their own. Seeing people
go out of their way to help others is an art that has been lost over many
years; it is rare to see someone who is willing to risk their own name for the
sake of other people. King and Sampson and quite similar in this regard and it
is refreshing to see that somebody is willing to take that chance.
“First
Practice” is a poem that I read by Gary Gildner which highlights a speech given
by a coach to his players and is an attempt to “fire up” his men. The coach
seems quite militaristic in his approach to his players but he is preparing his
men for their first practice. Dr. Cameron Carter said in his speech about
Martin Luther King Jr. that “He (Dr. King) died as public enemy but is now
viewed as a citizen saint.” The line has been in my head since attending the
speech because it was remarkably true and in the minds of these players their
coach was the public enemy but it was for the good of the team that he was so
hard on them. Although Dr. King wasn’t “hard” on his followers he led them to
their “battles” and stood right by their side until the day he died. “A Father”
by Bharati Mukherjee also reminded me of Dr. King. The story by Mukherjee tells
the story of a hard-working man in Detroit who gets up very early each morning
in order to help support his family. This father is willing to do whatever he
can in order to support his family and so was Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King
would do anything in order to reach his goals and this determined father would
go to extreme lengths in order to feel successful.
It
seemed to me that Dr. King believed that if we had true equality than we would
have the ability to chase our dreams and pursue happiness. Richard Hague
discusses the idea of doing what truly makes up internally happy in “Directions
for resisting the SAT.” This poem by Hague actually made me smile and cringe at
the same time. I thought back to taking the SAT and the excitement of applying
to colleges and then I also felt uneasy reminiscing back to the moments when I
was sitting taking this gut-wrenching test. Fortunately, for every reader of
this poem, the poem was not about the SAT but about doing what makes us happy
and not letting one test determine our entire life. Hague and Dr. King shared
this idea of happiness and searching for what is actually important to each
individual and not conforming to what everybody else does. Individuality is
extremely important in today’s society and it scares me that people seem to be
conforming more than ever before; exploring what makes us happy should be
everybody’s first priority.
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