Monday, January 19, 2009

Happy Birthday MLK

Today many people had the day off. And many kids had no school. Why? To celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King. Our town does not give the kids off of school, all day the kids have Civil Rights education. I have to say I love this. I think that it honors him far more than a day of sleeping in and then hanging out watching tv. I was reading James Preller's blog (he is a children author who's blog I somehow came across and now love to read) and he wrote a bit about MLK. Here are some of the quotes he had and they just blew me away

Here’s a few relevant quotes from Dr. King:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”



Amen Dr King, May we all learn from these words. 

1 comment:

James Preller said...

Thanks for passing along those King quotes, Dory. I agree, they are poignant and so relevant today. I applied it to bullying situations in school, but I try to be guided by those words across the board, in times of any unjust situation. Sometimes we all want to get along, not make waves, accept differences, and move on. I often do this. But there are other times when that behavior makes us complicit with wrong-doing; times when we must make ourselves heard.

James Preller