On Martin Luther King Day 2012

Today is a day of reflection and service.  My pondering has led me into such places as the current status of civil rights for people of color, for women, for marginalized populations. I am wondering how we as a society are better all of these years after Dr. King's death. How are we the same?  Some matters are heartening, others not so.

Today is also a day of personal wonderings.  How would my own personal world be different had Dr. King not given the ultimate sacrifice? What have I been able to experience because he came.  What would be missing had he not come?  Here are a few personal reflections.

Dr. King gave his life as the ultimate sacrifice and because of that sacrifice I was able to have Dr. Robert Lee Washington as a high school teacher; Charles, a friend from upstate New York, my wife, and I had that experience of looking for an apartment in Memphis long ago and were able to make sense of it; the N-word is not a part of my vocabulary; and bringing together kids of all groups, black and white, rich and poor, public school and private, middle and upper class neighborhoods and projects was an important effort at the church in Memphis.

Developing four social justice teams at Abilene Christian University in the COAMFTE-accredited MFT program happened and all of our lives are different as we explored Black farmer, Black Indian, and white privilege issues, and as we presented at various forums around the country, Christian and secular.

Meeting and engaging BFAA, Gary and the Grant family, Dr. Muhammad, Dr. Spencer Wood, and farmers in North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas have been rich and challenging. Hearing story after story after story and gathering health and well being information, for me have been life changing.

Publishing a modest piece with Dr. Edward Robinson and seeing it referenced in several journal articles says that the work is being noticed. Ours was just one piece that this researcher and preacher of the gospel was working on at that time.

Walking the farmers' land in Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, and other places brought a gripping reality to the progress and the lack thereof in matters related to the USDA.

Meeting USDA officials at one meeting and being encouraged by one person to just tell the farmers to get over it and move on and at the same conference feeling moved as one speaker had us shut off our microphones as she spoke from the heart about injustices.

Participating in mediation hears with  DOJ and the USDA brought home the reality of how persons in governmental positions saw Black farmers versus how Black farmers viewed themselves and their stories.  I am swayed by both.  Power and privilege and the lack thereof will forever be significant concepts and realities.

Meeting Harry Young and marching on his behalf in Kentucky with Monica Davis, Charla Hinson, Dwayne Burger, and others provided an insight into organizing protests. Attending the community action meeting with Gary Grant and others in Scotland Neck, NC as that community attempted to save its local schools and their kids from six hours on a bus every day gave me a perspective on community activism and its influences.

Walking through Sweet Auburn and reflecting on a friend's words, "Several years ago we would not have been able to do this," meaning that a black man and a white man could not walk across the street in that section of Atlanta or any other black section of America had it not been for Dr. King.

Considering the fact that I now live in Indian Country, work for an American Indian tribe, bringing a family way of thinking to a people who still experience the impact of historical trauma.  Those experiences at ACU and with Black farmers prepared me for this work. Thinking, talking, and strategizing about how to bring music and lyrics of farmers' struggles into the mainstream is something I do often

The questions are still the same. In what societal ways and in what personal ways are you and I different because Dr. King came?  In what ways are we personifying his "I Have a Dream" speech that day in DC? In what ways are we helping to remove Jim Crow ways of thinking from the hearts of people?

Just wondering this evening. Just recounting a few personal stories.