My youngest daughter was born the morning after Robert Kennedy was murdered. I had not yet recovered from the shock of Reverend King's murder. I thought then that the world was in turmoil. After all the marches for peace and equality, I had hopes we were on our way to something greater. Little did I realize that it was all a precursor to the insanity that has taken the reins of this country. Your beautiful mother's fierce beliefs and remarkable strength should propel us all into the present fight for Democracy. It is no wonder that your memory of her is so cherished.
Maybe words from one of Dr. King's proteges will work as a stand in today:
“As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience.” - John Lewis
On April 4, 1968 I was an Army captain with a four month old son, recently returned from 13 months of commanding an Armored Cavalry Troop on the Korean DMZ when I turned on my car radio and heard the news of MLK’s assassination. I sat there silent, saddened and in sorrow for some time before I could start my car and drive to work. Then two months later on June 6th the same thing happened on the death of RFKjr. All of this after the killing of JFK and I felt that our country was going mad. The personal events of those three days are forever etched in my mind. May the good of those three men be remembered forever.
On August 27, 1963, I turned 10 years old. NBD right? On that night, which will live in memory forever, Dr. Martin Luther King, sat in the lobby of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington DC. and wrote his "I have a dream speech." He delivered it the next day on August 28th, 1963.
Wow, Earl, she sounds so much like my Mother, whose work for Civil Rights in Birmingham, AL, back in the really bad old days, earned her a place in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. She too was a proud liberal and a foot soldier for peace and justice in this world of horrors. She kept photos of Dr. King and other activists on the walls of our home to inspire whoever was lucky enough to spend time with her. I am eternally grateful to her, Eileen Kelley Walbert, for being a liberal. She made our home a little island of sanity in a sea of racist thuggery.
I grew up in Northern NJ in the 1960s and recall the strife of the civil rights era, the Newark riots, and the assassinations of MLK and the Kennedys as terrible events, but also as events that reflected a nation winning the struggle over institutional racism, right-wing ignorance, and establishment corruption to advance democracy, decency, equality, and a chance at the pursuit of happiness to all citizens. MLK was revered, especially after his assassination, as a beacon appealing to the same better angels and self-evident truths that our greatest forefathers had held out in front of us.
Call me naive regarding my view at the time, and I'll admit you're correct. That said, we collected money for UNICEF, learned civics in school, led the world in science, welcomed immigrants, celebrated diversity and equal opportunity, and viewed the racists and reactionaries as dinosaurs on their way out. We also viewed the riots in our cities as terrible, but reflecting the righteous anger of minorities who would no longer tolerate the police brutality, economic injustice, and racial oppression that had intolerably defined black lives in America. Despite the tumult all around us, and the grinding carnage of Vietnam, it seemed to be a hopeful time for a nation throwing off the lies of the establishment and working to create a level playing field for a democratic meritocracy.
I felt that way for decades as I enjoyed life in the meritocracy created by the sacrifice of the greatest generation of Americans, but know now that my generation didn't do nearly enough to safeguard that inheritance. While we were patting ourselves on the back and content with our belief that we were good people living in an inherently good nation, we didn't recognize or take seriously enough the existential threat presented by the creeping rot injected into our politics by the Republican Party that formed in the wake of the civil rights movement, riding the poison of their "southern strategy" and appealing to reactionary white grievance, entitlement, religious bigotry, and proud ignorance.
Here we are now, 60 years later, the malignancy of that Republican movement sits incarnate in the Oval Office, and the character of our nation is as present in the ranks of the ICE goons murdering citizens in our cities as those opposing them in the streets. This is the time that will decide our nation's future and determine the outlook for the America our grandchildren will inherit. Will we do the job now, that we failed to do in our complacency as the Republican menace grew unchecked? When I looked around me on No Kings Day and realized that the vast majority of my fellow protesters were my age, I had to wonder if the absence of young people had given me my answer.
Those young people are being groomed by Kirk’s hate with him dead it becoming wore I believe spreading lie on history for example I overheard a few 23 yr saying how moon landing was fake, Helen Keller was made up and how liberals will destroy America. The whole time I was thinking where in the hell does this crap come from. Well I think Turning point! As well how the South still have issues with racism. Corruption in police dept as well the likes of Tim Poole podcast, several extremist right wing podcast young men listen to. It’s beyond disgusting. You can’t make them understand what their listening too is wrong. It’s frustrating to hear and they’re so right you can’t get through to them. I pray they will see the light soon.
When their parents are racist how can their outlook be any different? Sad then a hacker Musk cheated for himself and DJT to win because they both were heading for trial and heavy fines possible jail. So $250 mil was hell of lot less than $1.8 billion in fines so now look want those 2 crooks have done.
God Bless America and God help us.
My thoughts are on Wednesday Switzerland will arrest Trump due being a Felon or War Crimes either one is fine by me. I am a liberal will always be a liberal plus I live in CA in a damn red County pray for McClintock to move to Texas with the rest of the MAGA inbred.
Sorry for my Rant sometimes I just have to vent when it comes to Djt He’s a danger to all Americans and America he stole once he will again unless heart attack takes me soon Republicans will regret all they’ve allowed. They know Biden Bills help Americans.
First thing a new President should do is strip all pardons from all Jan 6 terrorist & all who paid DJT
Take all $ from him until audit is done.
Reinstate Jack Smith investigate all cabinet, Trumps entire family. So much more guess I shouldn’t keep going. I sicken by his I didn’t get a prize for the lies about 8wars. Need amendment to citizens can recall the president because this is disgusting watching Republicans try to cheat and send our voting information to the president. Why that states thank God I live in California. Gavin used some is doing an awesome job at protecting us.
Beautiful tribute to your mother, Earl. I was in first grade when JFK was shot. I came home to see my mother crying. At 6, I didn't really understand why. By the time MLK and RFK died, I did understand her tears. She died in 2022 or she would have died of a broken heart when Trump got reelected. Peace.
Thank you for sharing this, Earl. I read it choking back tears, as it brought back my own memories of that day in April 1968, watching my mom standing at the kitchen sink, staring out into the yard and crying. I had never seen her cry before, and the vision, as well as the knowledge of the terrible event that brought it to life, are seared in my brain forever. We all lost an incomparable human being that day, and so, so much more.
Reading this story of your mom and memories of the day Martin Luther King died, gave me chills, Earl. May the memories, words and spirits of our fascist-fighting ancestors light our way through these dark days.
Most appropriate you link our current situation to MLK. One of his quotes that I cannot find says something like this. "It is not just the hurt you feel from those who directly inflict it, but it is the screaming silence of those who do not oppose it"
We now have the same situation where those who can easily see the damage and stop it, stand by and do nothing.
On April 4th 1968, I was with 5 other young women volunteering at Junior Village, the largest, deadliest place in the US. Through Catholic Charities, I volunteered each first Thursday as a tutor, organized play person at the house for little children, ages 5 to 8. Junior Village was in the back of no place in Southeast, Washington, D.C. a very dangerous spot for 6 young liberal white do-gooders. God, we were so ignorant and naive. That afternoon Washington exploded, riots, burning buildings, chaos. Two Paulin Seminarians came, found us and drove us out of the city back to Holy Cross Academy in Kensington, Md. The next four days were a haze of disbelief and horror. There was no best, just the worst of times.
Tanks. I just read a short story by a survivor of Junior Village. He aged out in 1966. And he has survived but his losses are huge. Mother committed to St.Elizabeth’s. Grandmother surrendering he and his sister, 6 and 8, separated at the intake process. The violence boy on boy, counselor on boy. It was really bad. He had three classes for adults. The dreaded night guards, the trying to do their jobs day councilors, and the liberals. Volunteers, like me. We were the dupes, people to fleece, people just not worthy for their lives. What a system. Institutionalization. One minor step from total abandonment to the streets. Junior Village, thankfully is closed, but there’s nothing to take or replace that void. Just base, awful poverty and neglect.
Oh my heart. I am so moved reading this, by what you share about your Mom and what you remind us of about Martin Luther King. A truly great man, a tragic loss. I was a young child, but I remember well how the house was filled with sadness. The television on so we could witness as much as possible. I especially remember how beautiful, sad and strong his poor wife was. Most of what people my age know of Dr. King is what we have read, watched and heard over these many years, yet I feel such a strong regard and connection.
Thank you for bringing back beautiful memories of my Mom, she was much like yours I think. No wonder you are the man you are with the values you have. Thank you to your beautiful Mom. And thank you for putting me exactly where I am meant to be today, remembering and honoring a truly great man.
Beautifully written. And your mom was beautiful too. Nice to read first thing this morning.
I'm glad, Leslie.
Thanks.
My youngest daughter was born the morning after Robert Kennedy was murdered. I had not yet recovered from the shock of Reverend King's murder. I thought then that the world was in turmoil. After all the marches for peace and equality, I had hopes we were on our way to something greater. Little did I realize that it was all a precursor to the insanity that has taken the reins of this country. Your beautiful mother's fierce beliefs and remarkable strength should propel us all into the present fight for Democracy. It is no wonder that your memory of her is so cherished.
We are stronger than what what we are dealing with, Carol.
Thanks for sharing your story. -Peace
Maybe words from one of Dr. King's proteges will work as a stand in today:
“As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience.” - John Lewis
I can never hear enough from John Lewis.
If only more felt that way. His lesson is that compliance with injustice is complicity. We owe it to each other to not comply with injustice.
On April 4, 1968 I was an Army captain with a four month old son, recently returned from 13 months of commanding an Armored Cavalry Troop on the Korean DMZ when I turned on my car radio and heard the news of MLK’s assassination. I sat there silent, saddened and in sorrow for some time before I could start my car and drive to work. Then two months later on June 6th the same thing happened on the death of RFKjr. All of this after the killing of JFK and I felt that our country was going mad. The personal events of those three days are forever etched in my mind. May the good of those three men be remembered forever.
Thanks for that memory, Jerrol.
On August 27, 1963, I turned 10 years old. NBD right? On that night, which will live in memory forever, Dr. Martin Luther King, sat in the lobby of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington DC. and wrote his "I have a dream speech." He delivered it the next day on August 28th, 1963.
Wow.
Wait ...
WOW
A touching tribute to both giants in your life. Thanks, Earl.
Well, thanks for reading it. Appreciate that.
Wow, Earl, she sounds so much like my Mother, whose work for Civil Rights in Birmingham, AL, back in the really bad old days, earned her a place in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. She too was a proud liberal and a foot soldier for peace and justice in this world of horrors. She kept photos of Dr. King and other activists on the walls of our home to inspire whoever was lucky enough to spend time with her. I am eternally grateful to her, Eileen Kelley Walbert, for being a liberal. She made our home a little island of sanity in a sea of racist thuggery.
Thank God for liberals.
I grew up in Northern NJ in the 1960s and recall the strife of the civil rights era, the Newark riots, and the assassinations of MLK and the Kennedys as terrible events, but also as events that reflected a nation winning the struggle over institutional racism, right-wing ignorance, and establishment corruption to advance democracy, decency, equality, and a chance at the pursuit of happiness to all citizens. MLK was revered, especially after his assassination, as a beacon appealing to the same better angels and self-evident truths that our greatest forefathers had held out in front of us.
Call me naive regarding my view at the time, and I'll admit you're correct. That said, we collected money for UNICEF, learned civics in school, led the world in science, welcomed immigrants, celebrated diversity and equal opportunity, and viewed the racists and reactionaries as dinosaurs on their way out. We also viewed the riots in our cities as terrible, but reflecting the righteous anger of minorities who would no longer tolerate the police brutality, economic injustice, and racial oppression that had intolerably defined black lives in America. Despite the tumult all around us, and the grinding carnage of Vietnam, it seemed to be a hopeful time for a nation throwing off the lies of the establishment and working to create a level playing field for a democratic meritocracy.
I felt that way for decades as I enjoyed life in the meritocracy created by the sacrifice of the greatest generation of Americans, but know now that my generation didn't do nearly enough to safeguard that inheritance. While we were patting ourselves on the back and content with our belief that we were good people living in an inherently good nation, we didn't recognize or take seriously enough the existential threat presented by the creeping rot injected into our politics by the Republican Party that formed in the wake of the civil rights movement, riding the poison of their "southern strategy" and appealing to reactionary white grievance, entitlement, religious bigotry, and proud ignorance.
Here we are now, 60 years later, the malignancy of that Republican movement sits incarnate in the Oval Office, and the character of our nation is as present in the ranks of the ICE goons murdering citizens in our cities as those opposing them in the streets. This is the time that will decide our nation's future and determine the outlook for the America our grandchildren will inherit. Will we do the job now, that we failed to do in our complacency as the Republican menace grew unchecked? When I looked around me on No Kings Day and realized that the vast majority of my fellow protesters were my age, I had to wonder if the absence of young people had given me my answer.
Those young people are being groomed by Kirk’s hate with him dead it becoming wore I believe spreading lie on history for example I overheard a few 23 yr saying how moon landing was fake, Helen Keller was made up and how liberals will destroy America. The whole time I was thinking where in the hell does this crap come from. Well I think Turning point! As well how the South still have issues with racism. Corruption in police dept as well the likes of Tim Poole podcast, several extremist right wing podcast young men listen to. It’s beyond disgusting. You can’t make them understand what their listening too is wrong. It’s frustrating to hear and they’re so right you can’t get through to them. I pray they will see the light soon.
When their parents are racist how can their outlook be any different? Sad then a hacker Musk cheated for himself and DJT to win because they both were heading for trial and heavy fines possible jail. So $250 mil was hell of lot less than $1.8 billion in fines so now look want those 2 crooks have done.
God Bless America and God help us.
My thoughts are on Wednesday Switzerland will arrest Trump due being a Felon or War Crimes either one is fine by me. I am a liberal will always be a liberal plus I live in CA in a damn red County pray for McClintock to move to Texas with the rest of the MAGA inbred.
Sorry for my Rant sometimes I just have to vent when it comes to Djt He’s a danger to all Americans and America he stole once he will again unless heart attack takes me soon Republicans will regret all they’ve allowed. They know Biden Bills help Americans.
First thing a new President should do is strip all pardons from all Jan 6 terrorist & all who paid DJT
Take all $ from him until audit is done.
Reinstate Jack Smith investigate all cabinet, Trumps entire family. So much more guess I shouldn’t keep going. I sicken by his I didn’t get a prize for the lies about 8wars. Need amendment to citizens can recall the president because this is disgusting watching Republicans try to cheat and send our voting information to the president. Why that states thank God I live in California. Gavin used some is doing an awesome job at protecting us.
How darling she was. And I don't recall a non/famous person being so undone by MLK's death.
She was a powerhouse.
Beautiful tribute to your mother, Earl. I was in first grade when JFK was shot. I came home to see my mother crying. At 6, I didn't really understand why. By the time MLK and RFK died, I did understand her tears. She died in 2022 or she would have died of a broken heart when Trump got reelected. Peace.
Peace, Sharon.
Thank you for sharing this, Earl. I read it choking back tears, as it brought back my own memories of that day in April 1968, watching my mom standing at the kitchen sink, staring out into the yard and crying. I had never seen her cry before, and the vision, as well as the knowledge of the terrible event that brought it to life, are seared in my brain forever. We all lost an incomparable human being that day, and so, so much more.
Amen to that ...
A wonderful memory of your mother and Dr King. We will carry this forward, we shall overcome. ❤️
Reading this story of your mom and memories of the day Martin Luther King died, gave me chills, Earl. May the memories, words and spirits of our fascist-fighting ancestors light our way through these dark days.
Thanks.
They just.
Most appropriate you link our current situation to MLK. One of his quotes that I cannot find says something like this. "It is not just the hurt you feel from those who directly inflict it, but it is the screaming silence of those who do not oppose it"
We now have the same situation where those who can easily see the damage and stop it, stand by and do nothing.
They are actually doing everything they can to make things worse ...
On April 4th 1968, I was with 5 other young women volunteering at Junior Village, the largest, deadliest place in the US. Through Catholic Charities, I volunteered each first Thursday as a tutor, organized play person at the house for little children, ages 5 to 8. Junior Village was in the back of no place in Southeast, Washington, D.C. a very dangerous spot for 6 young liberal white do-gooders. God, we were so ignorant and naive. That afternoon Washington exploded, riots, burning buildings, chaos. Two Paulin Seminarians came, found us and drove us out of the city back to Holy Cross Academy in Kensington, Md. The next four days were a haze of disbelief and horror. There was no best, just the worst of times.
You should be very proud of the life you've lived.
Honored to know you, Claudia.
Tanks. I just read a short story by a survivor of Junior Village. He aged out in 1966. And he has survived but his losses are huge. Mother committed to St.Elizabeth’s. Grandmother surrendering he and his sister, 6 and 8, separated at the intake process. The violence boy on boy, counselor on boy. It was really bad. He had three classes for adults. The dreaded night guards, the trying to do their jobs day councilors, and the liberals. Volunteers, like me. We were the dupes, people to fleece, people just not worthy for their lives. What a system. Institutionalization. One minor step from total abandonment to the streets. Junior Village, thankfully is closed, but there’s nothing to take or replace that void. Just base, awful poverty and neglect.
Oh my heart. I am so moved reading this, by what you share about your Mom and what you remind us of about Martin Luther King. A truly great man, a tragic loss. I was a young child, but I remember well how the house was filled with sadness. The television on so we could witness as much as possible. I especially remember how beautiful, sad and strong his poor wife was. Most of what people my age know of Dr. King is what we have read, watched and heard over these many years, yet I feel such a strong regard and connection.
Thank you for bringing back beautiful memories of my Mom, she was much like yours I think. No wonder you are the man you are with the values you have. Thank you to your beautiful Mom. And thank you for putting me exactly where I am meant to be today, remembering and honoring a truly great man.
Thanks for passing that along. I appreciate it.