Thoughts of MLK…Again.

A little more than three years ago..I was sent to Selma, Alabama to cover the 50th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’. It was one of a few times that I’ve felt a connection to the late Rev. Martin Luther King.

The only time before that..was when I worked in local radio in North Carolina and — during a Flight of Honor trip celebrating World War II veterans –I had the opportunity to stand on the spot where Dr. King delivered his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.

In that historic speech, there were these passages:

“Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

My wife and I went to a family reunion in Stone Mountain, GA this year. We got a close-up look at the monument during a nighttime laser show. For those who aren’t familiar with the attraction, etched into the face of the mountain are the visages if Confederate figures Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee (both Confederate generals) and (Confederate president) Jefferson Davis.

I could not help but think of Dr. King again.

We live in a very divisive time. It seems that battles are on in cities across the country about whether to keep or tear down monuments that harken back to the biggest rift our nation has ever seen.

But what I saw during the Stone Mountain Park laser light show — at this most permanent of Confederate monuments — was ALL people…black, white, Hispanic, Asian… together to experience a show that did not discriminate.

Isn’t that what..and how we should be?

I think so.

I’ll let former United Nations ambassador Andrew Young have the final word.