MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.DAY
January 19th 2009. Today in the USA was the day of remembering
the civil rights leaders, desegregation leaders, Martin Luther
King. Indeed, he was one of the 20th century great men. I'm
watching a movie I collected about 15 years ago called "Separate
But Equal" - a movie based from the time era of 1950 plus years.
It shows the battle of de-segregation was started long before many
of us in my age bracket ever remember.
As a child growing up in England during the 1950s, I knew just
about nothing as to what life was like in the USA on a daily
basis, especially in the Southern USA. I cannot remember seeing
anything noteworthy on the British news about daily life in the
USA. We had the popular USA shows on TV like, "Gun Smoke" -
"Maverick" - "Bonanza" - and other popular shows, but daily
living in the USA was about as far from my mind as the moon is
from earth.
For kids in Britain like myself, I was used to seeing people
from India in their dress and colored/black people from Jamaica.
Growing up also in a Church of England School system and having
the Bible class ever day of school .... well it was planted in my
mind from early childhood that all people of the earth were the
creation of God, all were loved by Him, all were equal in His
sight. Segregation never entered my mind. I had no idea it was
being practiced in the USA. Because of my religious up-bringing,
I would have been SHOCKED if I had ever know during those years
of the 1950s that segregation was a huge part of USA life. I had
no idea it was being practiced and certainly no idea that some
people would resort to violence and killing, to make sure it
continued to be practiced. When I think back to the years of
schooling I had in England, I see now that we really were taught
just about nothing on USA history, hence I really knew just about
nothing, only that my favorite film cowboy and his horse (Roy
Rogers and Trigger) lived "out west" in California.
When I came to Canada at age 18, I was so busy with my new life
out West, that I paid little attention to anything that was going
on in the USA. Yes I remember where I was the day that President
Kennedy was assassinated, and I remember the day Martin Luther
King was killed, but I was not into what life was like on a daily
basis in some States of the USA. I remember going to my first
Feast of Tabernacles at Big Sandy, Texas, with the then Radio
Church of God, about 1964, and I remember they had a "segregation"
code of keeping whites and blacks from each other in the dinning
hall and social events. But my mind was not tuned into the things
happening on the "racial issue" of life in the USA.
I did not even relaize it was in 1964 that President Linden Johnson made
sure a "civil right bill" was brought into being, to de-segregated the
nation. But still took a number of years yet to bring a whole nation
to change its mind-set on "race."
It was actually many years later after Martin Luther King had
been killed in 1968, that I started to study the history and films and
news clippings of the "segregation" issues that plagued the USA
for a couple of decades.
For todays kids studying it all, it surely must seem like
something from another planet, kinda unreal, SHOCKING, EVEN
DISGUSTING, AND VERY SHAMEFUL, that such history is part of USA
history. The slavery topic and history in the USA is SHAMEFUL
enough to have happened, but 100 years or so AFTER slavery was
abolished, the USA had "segregation laws" that were still on the
books and being enforce into the 1950s .... IS MIND BLOWING!!
The Canadian National News just showed 20 minutes or so of film
clips from the 1960s on the segregation and civil rights movement.
It seems like it should be from ancient history, but it was only 40
years ago. Then we can also say that the USA people have come a long
way in 40 years.
As I re-watch this movie called "Separate But Equal" and re-watch
some of the footage of the news clips from the Martin Luther King
years, I am once more jolted, staggered, unsettled, overwhelmed,
perturbed, shaken and even startled and astounded, that a nation
built upon Christian religious foundations, a nation that prints
on its money "In God We Trust" had a history so shameful as the
often brutal practice as "segregation."
As a lover of the British Commonwealth and the land of the free
and brave - the Great United States of America, this day today -
Martin Luther King Day - I am sad that the history of slavery and
segregation ever took place, it is a terrible blotch in our
history. At the same time I am INSPIRED by Martin Luther King,
those before him and after him, both black and white people, who
pushed and stood up for the right, and FINALLY got the USA as a
people and nation to see the truth of the matter - that ALL
PEOPLE, WHATEVER THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, ARE PRECIOUS AND EQUAL
AND LOVED BEFORE THE GOD OF THIS UNIVERSE THAT CREATED US ALL.
The people of the USA have seen in the last 40 years what was evil
AND SIN on the racial side of things, and have corrected it. Will the
same USA people see that in other areas they have DEPARTED from their
God? Bible prophecy indicates it is very UNLIKELY, no matter what
President rules them, for the leaders of the nation are not wanting or
seeking the true ways of the Lord, the people would think they were
religious nuts if they were living and teaching the real truths of
the Bible.
The Presidency of Obama starts tomorrow. The Canadians are as
excited and upbeat as the USA people are. The first country Obama
will visit is Canada. For you USA people who do not know, Canada
ships more oil and fuel power to the USA than does Saudi Arabia.
The two countries are NORTH AMERICA, and are brother countries
from the word go. We shall have to see how they can work together
to bring the economy of North America back to prosperity, if God
is going to allow more years of prosperity before the end of this
age.
.................
To be continued from time to time
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