The Day Dr. King Died – Remembering April 4, 1968
The Day Dr. King Died
Remembering April 4, 1968
April 4, 2018
I clearly remember the night Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. I was a little boy watching a television program and it was “interrupted for a special report.” I didn’t understand the full implications of the event, but because I heard him and the African American community bad mouthed so often in my household, being a young boy I thought of Martin as a trouble maker and a disloyal American. As the years unfolded and I learned more and more about him, I came to realize that Martin was one of the few well known Americans who actually embodied the American ideal. Most people I know who have made efforts to understand and move toward a higher ideal are not surprised or dissuaded by whatever personal flaws Martin may have had. Instead, we need to see him as a man who knowingly put his reputation, career and even his life on the line in order to stand up for what he believed in.
What did Dr. King believe in? As I understand it, he wanted more than just racial integration into the American culture. He had a higher idea of what the American culture could be. He had a moral and cultural compass that critiqued poverty, materialism and militarism both in the U.S. and internationally. Above all, he promoted love and justice as his central cause. He spoke incessantly about non-violence and about participating in justice.
Knowing Pete Seeger personally, I see that Dr. King and Pete were two very different people in that they walked two very different “outward” paths – one was a preacher, one a musician. But then again, were they really all that different? They both embodied the American ideals of Justice, Freedom and Love. They didn’t just talk or sing about these ideals, they employed them in every aspect of their lives. I am sure this means they made a lot of mistakes and got their hands dirty. How else do you get to know something well enough that you become it?
In a new song I wrote called “Pete Seeger’s Life,” one of the verses goes says: “Moses told Pharaoh let my people go. Martin told the nation let the franchise grow. Pete taught the children we can live in peace no matter what our color or the language we speak.” Martin and Pete indeed worked in two distinctly different arenas – outwardly. But then again, on a deeper level, maybe they both worked in the same spiritual arena – the sphere of love. I’m not talking exclusively about the huggy and kissy kind of emotional love we all need and many of us cherish but that we can only share with so many people. I’m talking about the universal aspect of love that recognizes the inherent spiritual equality and dignity of ALL people, that seeks to build more often than to tear down or wall off, that believes in the unalienable rights of a people to self-govern IF they live responsibly and that doesn’t shy away from speaking truth to irresponsibility, greed, and selfishness.
Unsurprisingly, I never met Dr. King. But I learned a lot about him as a result of Pete’s songs. The songs led to extensive discussions with Pete and learning more about who Martin was. My understanding of the man has come a long way since that night in 1968 when his time on Earth ended. Today, I see Dr. King as a man worthy of our deepest respect and admiration, a man even considered by some scholars as a modern day founder of our nation – a nation that continues to be shaped and bent toward or away from the Ideal. But even more so, at least as I see it, Dr. King, like Pete, represents a pathway to a higher cause, a door into that sphere of love where they both resided.
