As regular readers know, it’s my own personal annual tradition to take 17 minutes every Martin Luther King Day and listen to the “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety. I never know which part(s) will give me goosebumps, but I always get them at some point.
I haven’t listened yet this year — will probably do so via iPhone on my commute home from work — but here’s the video clip:
Dr. King would have been 82 years old this week.
P.S. At some point, I’ll sit down with Loyette (and, later, Loyacita) and watch the speech with them. But explaining its significance requires so much ugly context — and Loyette, even at 3, would be asking a million questions. She obviously needs to know the history at some point, but it seems like such an invasion of her innocence to explain it all now. She’s blissfully unaware of racial and ethnic differences at this point, and surely couldn’t begin to conceive of the concept of discrimination. I wonder what is the appropriate age to broach the topic and start teaching one’s children this crucial but complicated piece of our history as Americans?
I first learned about all of this when I was in Kindergarten or 1st grade, mostly through school, with lots of further explanation from my parents. My elementary school was 50% black, 50% white, and I think the school district wanted to be sure we all knew about the history early on. This was in North Carolina, and we had a lot of teachers talk about their experiences growing up with discrimination, etc. It was fascinating, even at that young age, to hear of a world like that. Our principal told us about his experiences going to the movies and having to use separate entrances and seating, and my teacher told us how her dad, an Air Force colonel, invited a black family over for dinner one night, and they had people throw stones through their windows.
It’s definitely a more mature subject, but an important one to discuss. Loyette and Loyacita are very fortunate to have parents ready to educate them on our nation’s history and the lasting lessons you can draw from it.
^Should say, “people threw stones” not “they had people throw stones”