My weekend started off busy as usual that's nothing new, but i knew that it would increasingly become more full as the days went on...
Sunday i attended Justice Sunday, its the official annual Sunday service that marks the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. This year I was actually asked to speak and at the last minute I did not speak. None the less it was an awesome to be in at such a wonderful event....I think the thing that was moving was that we had the youth all watch a movie that was about the Kids of Birmingham and how THEY in fact started the movement in Birmingham, AL in 1963 by being arrested some two, three a half a dozen times. it was the young people that put their lives on the line, because their parents couldn't if they did they would lose their jobs, so it was the children, the youth that went out there and made the stand...children as young as 4 were arrested for as the little boy said his "T dom" he couldn't even say FREEDOM but he knew what it was....so see the Kiamsha students "get it" that the very students they were watching were their age was incredible!
On Monday, Kiamsha completed a day of service by going to the Mt. Zion Cemetery in Georgetown. It was such a contrast when you go to the site and you see this HUGE beautiful cemetery with all these wonderful head stones and then you realize that isn't the cemetery that we were there to clean. The history is rather long but basically there was a "joined" congregation in Georgetown but once it split the original gave the black church 1/4 of the cemetery lot, which then became Mt. Zion...however the cemetery was not kept up and basically there were just mounds of stones literally thrown all over the place so we were there to clean and to take inventory so that families could be notified that their loved ones where there...the reason this touched me and made such an impact was that it "clicked" to me how scared burial grounds are and the fact that they were just disregarded and the fact that you can look over across this "fence" and see the divide so plain and visible was like WOW...even more powerful was the fact that i was able to speak with several historians from the area, both black and white and to hear the richness of the knowledge that they have to offer was so moving...
so when i saw those millions of people on the mall yesterday and i saw that everyone was there for a common purpose a common cause a common dream to begin to be fulfilled it was like THIS is what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was talking about when he spoke of the dream of the movement of the people to come together as a human race...like President Obama stated yesterday this is just the beginning and we have a lot of work to do, but to know that we can come together withOUT incident and be in love and peace was absolutely beautiful...so it made me feel like what i saw on Monday although very real is something that we can come together to work out...
we are finally staring to OPEN our eyes...we still have a lot of work to do, but we do see that we are going somewhere and making our way to the promised land...but like he stated its going to take all of us...the President makes federal policy he cannot change our communities...
WE HAVE TO CHANGE OUR COMMUNITIES!
its but so much that he can do if we aren't willing to get out there and make a difference and say you know what we will make this move and make this difference for our children and our children's children...he is the first African American/Black President, but he is not only the president for black folks but for all folks...and it makes me proud to know that one day maybe my black little daughter can be President (when i have a child) ...there is still a long way to go in terms of racism, sexism, all the isms'...
but yesterday January 20, 2009 we definitely took a step towards HUMANITY
