On April 4, 1968 I was an Amity High School senior, sitting up in my room in Woodbridge, Connecticut writing a history term paper on conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. I was then, as now, a news junkie so I had the radio tuned to WCBS News Radio in New York City.
Suddenly, that awful CBS bulletin sound came on.
The news: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
I was in shock, because I always followed the news, I was on his side and from the time I was tiny it was clear my parents Richard and Helen Gandelman admired him and what he was doing.
I rushed downstairs to tell my mother who was sitting in the den at a round table, playing canasta with several friends. I told her: "Martin Luther King has been assassinated!" She turned pale and her eyes brimmed up. She and her friends sat in shock for a few seconds; it had only been 5 years earlier that we had lost our beloved President John F. Kennedy. Oh, no..not again!
Yet, even on that day, his death had been a tragic footnote to something truly special.
What mattered was Dr. Martin Luther King’s life. And his incredible presence.
He was doing in the United States what another person who later became a hero of mine had done: like India’s Mahatma Gandhi, King had appealed to the nobler, more humane — SPIRITUAL — part of his fellow men and women. In retrospect, he was the antithesis of the rage-filled verbal debaters that now swirl around us.
King was trying to get through through to minds, consciences, hearts — and spirits — of people to bring about a change. And as he slowly did so, even during his last year when he hit some rocky points and became more controversial than ever due to his growing opposition to the Vietnam war (which I supported at the time), he also helped bring about an image change for black Americans. The World War II show biz open-eyed images started to vanish, partly because of new figures on the scene but also because King epitomized and helped nurture a visible courage and nobility…and cultural stereotypes began to crumble.
As an elementary schoolkid, I had once asked a black lady: "Why is your skin black?" and she explained to me that God blessed people in different ways. And that made sense to me. In viewing King as a kid and teen I did see a black leader, but what was dominant was the nobility of his thought, the strength of his internal character — that spirit that was just bursting through the television screen as he talked.
When he made his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on August 26, 1963 I was sitting with my Grandmother Anna and her nurse Mrs. Crowley, sipping a Pepsi. We all were in awe. It wasn’t that we were watching HISTORY; it was that his speech touched something within us all. My grandmother, who had a stroke, could barely talk but you could see she was in awe. And I couldn’t figure out my feelings, but I knew I had just seen someone supremely special who wasn’t just mouthing words to win people over. His words came from the depths of his being…from that spark. Something in the back of my mind told me when I watched it: "I may never see someone like this again." And I haven’t.
Sure, later on it came out that J. Edgar Hoover and others were trying to use sleaze about his personal life against him to undermine him but you know what? It didn’t matter. Those were errors of the flesh. And King — as new generations find out when they read about his life and can feel his charisma and spirit while watching videos of his famous speech — was someone of the spirit. Those who tried to personally discredit him have been relegated to the dumpster of history while King remains a moral beacon for his — or any — time.
We Americans have a habit of celebrating a holiday by either taking the day off, complaining because the banks are closed, or doing lip service to it.
But today should be more than a day when banks are closed and kids don’t go to school and we just say a name.
Let’s remember what he did.
Remember what he sought.
Remember the example he gave us.
Remember that bright, internal spark that shined through.
And remember that we have that, too — and that perhaps on this day in 2005 we ought to rededicate ourselves to making sure that ours also shines through.
SOME OTHERS’ COMMENTS ON DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
—Steven Taylor, aka Poliblogger, puts MLK within the context of liberals and conservatives today.
—Dave Anderson looks at Dr. King’s legacy.
—The Glittering Eye talks about King’s impact on his family and offers some links to more sites taking note of this special day.
—Bloggledygook talks about King, that spark and how it’s evident in some loved ones.
—Say Anything has a lot to say about Dr. King and his legacy (with some good links).
—Middle Earth Journal points to some earlier links for writings about MLK.
—La Shawn Barber looks at his legacy, hopes and says liberal elites have failed to extend his legacy and defiled his dream.
—Michele Malkin is keeping track of MLK blogging.
—Yankee From Mississippi also has an excellent round up.
—Winds of Change posts a MLK document you don’t see much anymore…but it is a classic, and timeless…and a key to what made this man tick.
—Jack Grant at Random Fate was 3 when MLK was shot and notes how Dr. King is tied in with the idea of sound choices…an issue we all grapple with every day individually and collectively.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.