I am a winter baby, born in the cold blistery month of January, my favorite month of the year. I have always preferred cold to hot. To be honest, I feel cheated that we haven’t had our traditional abundance of snowfall and wind-chills below zero, and, instead, you sun worshippers have enjoyed unusually warm record-breaking high January temperatures.
January is also my favorite month because it rushes in the New Year and it is the birth month of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every year, his birthday finds me pensive and reminds me that as a little girl, I actually met Dr. King when he visited Englewood’s Benjamin Banneker Elementary school on 67th and Normal. I still remember the excitement and thrill of that day when hundreds of my school mates and I, with smiling faces and eager anticipation, extended our waving hands to be touched by the man who had done so much, and went on to do so much more for Americans and the world.
I love sharing the story of my meeting Dr. King; it is one of my fondest memories; it is one of my life’s greatest inspirational experiences. Many young people of today only know of Dr. King as a man who marched for civil rights under a doctrine of non-violence; someone they read about during Black History Month. I remember him as a “real” human being with whom I interacted and actually touched. I like to think that because I once met Dr. King, I was, and continue to be inspired to work for the betterment of all mankind. I think because of having met Dr. King, I have grown to ‘really’ love African-Americans, and to appreciate how far we, as a people, have come in this country which once enslaved us.
Happy MLK Day, America, we are a better country because he lived!
Thought for the Week:
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent!”
