He would be 91

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Today is actually Martin Luther King’s birthday. (No, it’s not next Monday.  That’s just the convenient choice the government makes to provide a 3 day weekend.  [That also coincides with the (racist) holiday that obtained in Virginia for more than a century- the Lee-Jackson day, theoretically celebrating the two Confederate generals, but really promoting the hagiography of the racist South.)  Had King not been murdered (and, of course, were still alive), he would be 91 today.

Three years ago, I joined about 149 of my fellow congregants  traipsing about Selma, Alabama.  Our goal was to recreate for ourselves and our children an event that happened 56 years ago.  The March from Selma to Montgomery.

With tremendous awe, we realized we were walking in the shoes of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Reverend James Reeb, Joanne Bland, and a slew of others.

Our trip went beyond Selma.  We also recreated  Rosa Parks’ abbreviated bus ride in Montgomery.  Morosely, in Birmingham, I felt the pain of four young children murdered by an American terrorist at the 16th Street Baptist Church.  Because we spent our weekend in all of these locations.  Plus, a stop in Atlanta to visit the MLK National Historic Park.

That synagogue trip put into perspective a scary trip to Nashville, Tennessee with the goal of  registering Blacks to vote so many decades ago played in the grand scheme of things.  Those efforts complemented other college students’ work to change the electoral process in the cities of Farmville (VA), Greensboro (NC), Charleston (SC), Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma (AL), Albany (GA), Little Rock (AR), and New Orleans (LA).

Given the pervasive racism (not to mention rampant anti-Semitism) that is overtaking our great nation (starting with TheDonald- with his acceptance of neoNazi marches in Charlottesville (Virginia) and his rampant deprecation of Blacks and Hispanics (including his “Shithole Countries” characterization), it’s time we all reflect on the lessons that should have been learned- and sealed- by the example of the Reverend Martin Luther King’s life.

You can see the effects that our recreated march had on the adults and the children – our observations have been enshrined in print.  

Our Response to Hate

May his memory  be a blessing.

Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

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