Saturday, January 15, 2005 A Beautiful Man in Most Ways
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Bill and I always seem to teach Sunday school on the most festive weekends of the month. This Sunday, we're teaching a somewhat delicate subject, Dr. MartinLutherKing, Jr. Day.
Often, the most difficult part of teaching pre-KRE is boiling complex subjects--and there are so many associated with MLK (racism, poverty, compassion, activism, etc.)--down to simple ideas the kids can actually absorb. I wasn't satisfied with the biographies and lesson plans I found online, so I wrote this explanation of why we celebrate MLK Day:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an important American, and we celebrate his life’s work on the third Monday of January every year.
Martin was born on January 15, 1929, long ago, when people in many parts of America thought it was okay for people with my skin color to discriminate against (or be mean or unfair to) people with his skin color, which was a beautiful chocolate brown.
Yet, Martin grew up believing, like we Unitarian Universalists do, that judging others by how they look is wrong, and he wanted to change how the people of the world treated each other.
So, after finishing college and becoming a minister (like our Rev. Barbara), Martin began acting on his ideas for making the world a better place for all people. He led non-violent (peaceful) protests and marches against war, racism, and poverty. (“Racism” means judging people on their skin color, and “poverty” is when people don’t have enough money for all their needs like food, clothes, housing, and medicine.) He also wrote letters and gave speeches, which he was very good at because his words made people stop, listen, and think about fixing the things that are wrong and unfair in our world. Even the president of the United States listened to Martin and helped pass laws to make sure that people were treated fairly no matter what their skin color. He also won a very important and world-famous prize—The Nobel Peace Prize—for all his good work.
Sadly, Martin was killed by someone who hated him for his ideas and the changes he helped make. So, today we celebrate the life he gave to help make our country a nicer, fairer, and just-plain-better place for every American.
Many people celebrate Martin’s life by gathering to remember him and his ideas, which is what we are doing today in worship circle, but, another way to celebrate Martin when you get older is to do good things to help make the world a better place, like feeding people who don’t have enough to eat, teaching people to read and write, and speaking up when people are being unfair to each other.
Discussion Question: How would you feel if someone didn't like you because of your hair, skin, or clothes?
By the way, I say "most" in the title of this post only because MLK wasn't exactly a feminist, and he had secret extra-marital affairs--but hey, he was a man so full of love, how could he not need a little nooky to re-charge his tired soul when he was away from his wife? Coretta seems to have forgiven him; I think I can too. Besides, saintsareoftenflawed.
# posted by Robin @ 11:09 PM Comments: My daughter came home and told me about a man she learned about Friday - a man that thought everybody was the same, that color didn't matter, and that God loved all of us. Good to know our public schools get something right.
I should note that I came across some grossly racist sites that while researching this post. I decided not to link to them, as I did not want to associate myself with them, nor did I want to drive traffic to their sites. Also, just to toot my own horn, our RE Director loved the MLK bio I wrote above and will be sending it along to the UUA for circulation, which has made Bill and I think about writing a book of lesson plans for the pre-K class since it really can be difficult to find materials geared towards kids that young.
