Early morning, April 4th
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
Bono was, of course, talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated on that day in 1968. I remember several years ago when my oldest daughter was in elementary school and we were studying for her end of the year "Standard of Learning" tests. She had some flash cards, and the one side of the card said, "He was one of the most influential people in the Civil Rights movement." She gave the correct response, "Martin Luther King" Me, being the kind of parent I am, I didn't stop there. I asked her a question that wasn't on the little cards. "What is the Civil Rights Movement?" She didn't know. They hadn't been taught that. The powers that be in charge of testing had decided that all of this man's wonderful, history changing work should be boiled down to a sound byte. Well, this parent wasn't letting it stay that way. After we had a brief discussion about what the Civil Rights Movement was, I then, through the amazing tool that is the Internet, pulled up a video of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. That day she learned WHY he was "one of the most influential people in the Civil Rights Movement." Like so many other great men and women who have tried to bring about change for the good and betterment of mankind, their life was ended because of what they stood for. Yet, they had the courage to fight for that change no matter what the threat or consequence. Another person who fought for the right peacefully, Mahatma Ghandi, said this, "Be the change you want to see in the world." How many of us have the courage to be that change?
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