Only one inch wide and just long enough to go around my wrist, but with so much meaning, and imprinted with the following:
“Thank you for joining the Slaughter Memorial Foundation, Inc’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Walk in support of his Dream.”
I think I shall keep mine as a reminder of several important things:
1. The courage of a man who gave his life for his belief that we are good and have the right to enjoy the freedoms our Nation makes possible.
2. My responsibility to thank him by honoring him each year.
3. My responsibility to live a life that makes his dream come true.
4. My responsibility to write this article that expresses my sadness that so many of my friends and associates saw no need to recognize his sacrifice.
Those who paraded numbered less than a hundred and included, I think, only three whites (a lady, a gentleman, and me) and, again to my knowledge, no Latinos. I am certain that the extreme cold and wind discouraged many from attending. But absent also were the elected officials of our city and county and the leaders, teachers and members of Forest’s 15 civic clubs and 41 churches.
I no longer live in Forest, my hometown, but I was anticipating a greater turnout, not only to commemorate the life of this great man, but to demonstrate the racial and social progress Forest has made since I last lived there 62 years ago. I was born in 1940 and so lived during the last vestiges of segregation. I know what it was like, and it was pure evil.
And for the cause of freedom I have had the experience of watching Americans of all shades die trying to keep 17 million Vietnamese free from communism, even holding one of my men from Puerto Rico as he breathed his last breath, quietly calling for his mother. So I say these words neither lightly nor fail to understand their import.
Effective leadership is not free, nor is it safe, and those who would be our leaders must grasp that knowledge, hold it tightly, take a deep breath, and lead! And if the very thought of doing so frightens you to inactivity, have the grace, the dignity to get out of the way and let someone else get the job done!
At the last count of our 50 states, Mississippi was ranked 35th in violent crime, 46th in K-12 education, last in overall education and last in wealth. However, we ranked second in our Nation in church giving! Perhaps it’s time for some of that money to go into education and electing officials who value serving more than their personal position and wealth!
Mississippi will never get off the bottom until we learn how to work together.
As a final thought for those who emphasize our differences rather than our similarities, apparently they are unaware that we are all far more alike than different. Human genome research has proven positively that the human species originated in Africa and immigrated from there to the rest of the World. Well and good if you are proud of your European ancestry, but know that everyone’s ancestors originally came from Africa. Truth be known, we were all originally Africans, and still are.
Now, where’s my wrist band?
