Dr. Martin Luther King holiday
You got no mail today.
Did you notice? Do you know why?
Because this is a National Holiday,
a day set aside
to honor someone
who made a difference.
He was not some rabble-rouser
Tryin’ to stir up folks for no good reason,
He was a preacher of the Word of God,
which is where he found his strength to go on,
Because when God gets behind you,
It doesn’t matter who is in front of you
Calling you names,
Spreading hate like wildfire,
Bombing your homes
threatening your family,
Because that is what he faced,
Not in ancient times –
though it may feel that way
If you are 21,
But 50 years ago,
in my childhood,
In the days of MY lifetime.
He was a gifted speaker,
who could inspire crowds
And uplift hearts,
like no one you’ve ever heard,
He inspired collective ACTION
through non-violent means,
inspired those who had no hope left
inspired politicians to change their laws
to DO SOME WALKING to go along with their TALKING
about equal opportunity.
He wrote a letter from the Birmingham jail,
to his fellow ministers, and asked,
Was this not America – home of the brave, land of the FREE?
What would it take to bring about EQUALITY?
But 50 years later,
A man looks at me,
In a business in the rural south,
and asks me, “What was the attraction?”
When I spoke of the service today,
when I joked about spending 3 ½ hours in CHURCH,
listening to speakers and choirs sing,
celebrating this man.
“What was the attraction?”
And I don’t know what to say, except,
“This is a NATIONAL HOLIDAY!”
This was a man courageous enough
to stand up for justice
In the face of death,
To face hatred
With never ending love,
To face bombings of churches and his home,
With a dream of a better America,
And I want to say, “Where were you?”
Because there were hundreds in that church today,
and where ARE we today – exactly?
Because today was a NATIONAL holiday,
And we have much work left to do,
because … “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence . . . in a descending spiral of destruction…
The chain reaction of evil . . . must be broken, or we will shall plunge into the dark abyss of annihilation…” 1
and “When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response . . . I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life . . .” 2
and “Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.” 3
1,2,3 quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King
Doctor Grandma 
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