Living ~400lbs

… and believe me I am still alive

MLK Day

I was born in 1966, in a state which entered the Union in 1889, and thus had always been a “free” state; some of the founders came here because they couldn’t legally own land in other states.  Yet state history included two of the most prominent counties being named in honor of the pro-slavery President Pierce and Vice President King.

I learned about the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr and the Civil Rights movement in school, along with the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.   The internment had a lot more “hometown punch” because I attended school with kids whose parents and grandparents had  been interned, many of them losing everything in the process.   Toss in that my town was overwhelmingly white and the Asian-Americans outnumbered African-Americans by a large margin, and it was easy to view Jim Crow as from another world. (It wasn’t.)

As an adult I discovered A Knock at Midnight, which is a collection of sermons preached by the Reverend King. In that book I discovered a persuasive and powerful voice, and the kind of preacher I wish I had known.  Much of the memories of him today focus on his social justice work, but he was a Christian minister first, and his leadership came from that tradition.  A Knock at Midnight is also online here. If you would like to discover the Reverend King in a different way, this might appeal to you.

Oh – in 2005 Washington’s King County was “renamed” in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

3 responses to “MLK Day”

  1. Phyllis Jeans Avatar
    Phyllis Jeans

    Thank for the suggestion to read “A Knock At Midnight”. I will that and perhaps will learn about him instead of just remembering him and what I knew of him.

    Reply
  2. AcceptanceWoman Avatar
    AcceptanceWoman

    Today in Olympia I heard an amazing Reverend, Reverend Angela Ying, who echoed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s voice and power. If you’re interested, I encourage you to take a look at her sermons — she’s at the Bethany United Church of Christ in South Seattle. It looks like a tremendously progressive congregation.
    I’m not a churchgoer (I’m a synagogue-goer, and I’m about 75 miles away) but if I were, I would love to hear her on Sunday mornings.

    Reply
    1. Living 400lbs Avatar
      Living 400lbs

      It’s an idea…I’m currently not a churchgoer much, though I have been meaning to make it to Kate‘s church one of these days. :)

      Reply

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Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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