MUSINGS ON A DAY OFF FROM WORK

By Debbie Bulloch


(NOTE: I will soon finish the post LOOKING INTO A MIRROR. I need to speak to the young woman and get her permission to go on with her story. Please stay tuned.)

In the meantime...

Today is a work holiday in the USA. We celebrate the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. If case you have lived in the planet Mars for the last 50 years and have just returned to Earth, Dr. King was the most important leader of the American civil rights movements - he was also a black man. Dr.King led a famous boycott in Selma, Alabama to fight against laws that forced black people to sit on the back of the autobus. Dr. King was also a devoted follower of Ghandi's peaceful civil disobedience methods. Finally, in 1963 Dr. King delivered the now famous speech "I Have A Dream" speech. Dr. King was assasinated on April 4, 1968.

Here are portions of Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech:

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!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

...

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Tomorrow, almost 40 years to the date when Dr. King was assassinated, we will celebrate the inauguration of our new President, Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American President.

I do not know whether Obama will be a great President.

I hope that he will.

I do not know whether Obama will help solve the many problems that now plague my country.

I think that he will.

I do not know whether Obama will lead this great nation that I call home back to its rightful place in the family of man.

I pray that he will.

Regardless of what happens during his administration, this is a good time to be an American - a great time to be proud to be an American. In Obama's election America has shown the world that:

America is a nation of laws and not of men. We have changed government, and not a single gunshot has been fired in the streets of America; not a single drop of blood has been spilled.

We have shown the people of the world that for all of our faults (and yes, we have many of them) we are still the land of opportunity. Just a little over one hundred years black American were slaves. By law, during the era of slavery, blacks were not even considered to be human; they were legally property, to be sold and bought at the will of their masters.

Today, we are less than 24 hous away from swearing-in the nation's first black President. A nation where blacks were once slaves, will soon have its first black President It was not easy getting to this point - but we are here now!

I am always proud to be an American - but today and tomorrow I will be even prouder. I am proud to live in a country where the birth of a black man is celebrated as a national holiday and I am proud to live in a country that looked past race and color and elected its first black President.

I ask all my friends from all corners of the world to join me in this moment of celebration - please share in my joy to be an American. Be happy for me, be happy for the world. Thank you.

Monday morning, January 19, 2009.

This morning the day woke up overcast and cold (well, cold for Southern California standards). I had a late breakfast this morning - I am feeling very, very lazy, I am surprised that I even have enough energy to write this post. As I walked upstairs back to my bedroom I saw these trees, right outside my upstairs windows.



The sight of the trees, framed against a grey sky, reminded me of one of my all-time favoritie Simon and Garfunkle songs:

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Time, time, time, see whats become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please
But look around, leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the salvation army band
Down by the riverside, its bound to be a better ride
Than what youve got planned
Carry your cup in your hand
And look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
Thats an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Look around, the grass is high
The fields are ripe, its the springtime of my life

Ahhh, seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Wont you stop and remember me
At any convenient time
Funny how my memory slips while looking over manuscripts
Of unpublished rhyme
Drinking my vodka and lime

But look around, leaves are brown now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around, leaves are brown
Theres a patch of snow on the ground...

Hang on to your hopes my friends - never let go of your hopes and dreams. It will soon be a better day for you, for me, for all of us.

Peace!