On this snowy, cozy day I paused to think about the impact that Martin Luther King Jr has had on our world. I dug out my copy of Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, and sat my three Bigs on the couch and read it. I cried. Yes, I did. (I know you are shocked.) My kids listened intently as I read and asked questions along the way. Then I made them sit through the You Tube video of his speech. Before you imagine my calm and cozy living room, lit by candlelight with halos hovering over each of my angels heads as they were inspired by the low resolution, low sound video, let me just tell you that 1/4 of my children really got something out of it, 1/4 stayed in the Ergo saying, "Muffin please! Water please!", 1/4 slouched, sighed, and basically watched it upside down (and said "WHAT?!?!? when I tried to make him sit nicely), and the last 1/4 counted the ships on his Star Wars pjs.
But I don't care. Because before I read to them, I asked them what they knew about MLK and my boys answers ranged from "He was in a war?" to a shrug of the shoulders and verbal utterings that equals, "I don't know." And now they do know. And they heard about The Dream. And next year, when I sit them down and read to them and have them watch it again, they will hear and understand a little bit more. And more. And at some point they will realize why today tears ran down my face as I held their Ethiopian sister and told them about Martin Luther King.
Thanks to him and others who have dedicated their lives to justice, at great personal cost, the world IS a better place for my children. Yes, we still have a long way to go. But The Dream IS so much more real than it was a generation ago. And, without The Dream that King and others like him have, our family would not look the way it does today.
