The Genius of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Speaking To The Children

[omega minimo]

I have a dream today!! My dream is MLK's dream, because he shared his dream, he instilled his dream into future generations, he embodied it in his own children. He may have already foreseen the inevitabilility of his personal sacrifice, when he met and spoke with and made an indelible impression on a young college student who is one of our own DUers.

MLK's lesson and the lesson of his era, which he instilled as much and perhaps more than any of the heroes, viscerally remembered and honored by those who lived through the times:

You can. and must. make a difference. If you don't live the Dream, who will?

http://brotherpeacemaker.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/king-estate.jpe?w=256&h=306


For some bizarre reason, the graphic on the Google site today showed a march of people with an MLK figure in the fore and everyone was GREY!!

This recalls a favorite science fiction book of the 1970's, where people are grey, as it turns out, from the imagination of a character who can alter reality with his dreams.

The Lathe of Heaven
http://books.google.com/books?id=n1Va1ww0LhoC&dq=lathe+of+heaven&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=FjdVS_r7GoXQsgO_sfzkBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=14&ved=0CDIQ6AEwDQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7482022
(linked with permission)

The day I met Dr. King

I was in college and my sorority was having a Convention in Philadelphia.

Dr. King was the guest speaker and he was magnificent, simply the greatest speaker I had ever heard.

He spoke in a huge Baptist Church. The Church was packed, my AKA Sisters were lining the walls.

After his speech, the President of the Sorority asked all of the undergrads to form a line.

Then she announced that we were all going to meet Dr. King!
There must have been 100 of us.

When my turn came, he asked me my name and repeated it as he looked right at me.

He had the most magnificent brown eyes,gentle and sincere.
It was as if we were the only two in the room.

He held my hand and asked me what I planned to do after I graduated from USC.

I told him that I wanted to be a teacher.

He never took his eyes off of my eyes and he said, "You will be a GREAT Teacher young lady!"

He stated it as if he WILLED it to happen.

I carried his words with me everyday that I was a Teacher, a Reading Specialist, Gifted Coordinator for 50 schools in the Urban Area and a Principal.

Meeting Dr. King was a defining moment in my life.

Happy Birthday Dr. King, you would be very proud of me!


http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!

http://www.velveteenmind.com/.a/6a00d83451637969e2010536e959ea970c-800wi

What dreams are we offering the children of today?

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

[REP]

2. "The Lathe of Heaven" solution took multiracial people out of existence

Greyness wasn't a solution. I think the Google graphic is to convey a different era, and greyscale images are visual shorthand for another time.

LeGuin's book is great, and it's always a good day to reread MLK.

[omega minimo]

3. Greyscale photos yes. Greyscale imagery on Google home page, not so much.

Didn't the Lathe of Heaven "solution" make everyone multiracial?

[REP]

6. No. It made Heather, who was biracial, cease to exist.

And greyscale/b+w is a common graphic device to convey a bygone era.

[greyl]

4. Exactly, it's conveying a different era.

The people aren't grey, they're black & white(like TV).

[omega minimo]

5. Interesting.

Is that how you read the novel? Oh, you mean the Google thing.

They needed a TV frame about the figures for that to work visually.

[REP]

7. No, it wouldn't work visually for lots of reasons.

For one thing, that's not how Google does their theme logos. For another, it's superfluous; additionally, b+w images aren't limited to TV screens. Not to mention it would junk up the design and look like crap.

I can tell you don't work in graphic design. :-) that's okay - lots of people who do are just as bad at it.

oops - typo!

[omega minimo]

8. The grey Google image didn't work visually

because it made no sense. It's a leap to expect viewers to jump to the conclusion "old TV" because what they showed was a a clump of grey people walking on a white background. Rather than a seamless visual connection, that leap requires clunky and questionable logic you are using. If it WAS a reference to B&W TV, the artist could have made some effort to represent that.

It's not "superfluous," because the underlying one is that of color. Google took the easy out to avoid selecting how to color all the people in the background. They just made them grey.

And it "looks like crap."

That's okay. Some of the Google designs are very not well crafted for the screen. If you work in graphic design, you may be one of "lots of people who do are just as bad at it."

[goclark]

14. Love the photo and the message nt

[goclark]

12. Dr. King's message is about Color of Skin not being imporrant

in our world.

[goclark]

13. Thanks for the information about the book nt

[goclark]

9. Simply beautiful ~ just made a donation to Haiti

after reading your thread.

My delight was in your message ~ the colors in the image were clear enough for me to know that your heart was certainly in the right place. :loveya:

[omega minimo]

10. Thank you goclark for permitting use of your beautiful story

:pals::yourock:

[goclark]

11. You are the one that Rocks

:yourock: