Category Archives: MLK

Andrew Bridge, hero, I have a Dream, Institute of Medicine, Living Well, MLK, Patients Like Me, race

A Dream 50 Years Later



This past week we had the 50th anniversary of one of the most famous speeches in American history. It wasn’t covered live on TV as it was given, but over time, it has grown to an epic statement of where we wish our country to be in terms of race relations.  It’s grown so much racial import in many peoples’ eyes, they forget he spoke of income and jobs topics about which we have yet to reach consensus.  When I think of King’s Dream speech, I am reminded of the Gallup poll at the time saying only a third of American’s supported him and his ideas.  Then I think of a quote from Andrew Bridge in Hope’s Boy,“Some people are born for battles.  Their bravery endures, regardless of frailty or strength.  They are the ones we look to and our admiring hearts tell us, “They’ll know what to do.”  They are the great winners and losers of history.  We remember them less for their outcomes than for their glorious acts.  And, with the gentle wash of time, they become our heroes.”

Who denies MLK hero status today?

As we hit the 50 years mark since the speech, I remember this time while longer than my life, is but a blip in humanity’s quest for fairness.  Then I realize if we arrived, we would no longer care, for we would take it for granted.  It is a little ironic that if we reach the goal, we will no longer attempt to recognize and make up for past misdeeds. Doing so puts us back on uneven ground as we try to make amends.  Think of all the white men who think minority poor are better off than the white poor.  To arrive at the goal of fair equality could only happen by starting over. 

If we ever find ourselves (back) in a spot where there is no improvement to be made, I submit maintaining the status quo will require us to lose what it is to be human, to strive to make better the realities in which we live.  At least these thoughts seem to be the epitome of what it is to be American.  I suspect if we ever go back, somebody will still bite the apple in an effort to find a “better.” 
 
After all, what’s more American than apple pie?
 
(continue to next page for two random thoughts)
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 I saw a post from Montel Williams this week asking what “Living well” means.  Since I spend a lot of my life looking for the answer, I gave the closest answer I’ve come up with thus far.

Living well is learning to recognize the gifts we receive and give, followed by thinking how to best enjoy them.  

Living well is learning to love learning and then figuring out a way to pass along both the love and the knowledge.

Living well is recognizing the love we give and receive. 

Living well is valuing both. 

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A very cool thing happened recently.  I was asked by Patientslikeme. com to go downtown so I can represent the patients’ perspective on a panel at the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.  The conference is being put together by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
 
http://www.iom.edu/activities/global/innovationhealthprofeducation.aspx

I’m excited.  Looking at some of the people and their positions, I want to go just to hear what they say.  I’m fascinated.

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acceptance, MLK, Mountaintop, MS

Have You Been to the Mountaintop?

5 Comments
  Take my Hand…The song Martin Luther King requested be played just before he was assassinated.
Martin Luther in his last speech spoke of the time he lived being the one he would choose. If offered the chance to live with and see the great philosophers of Greece, or see Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation or even hear the speech where a president of a struggling country declared “We have nothing to fear save fear itself,” still he would choose to live in the last half of the 20th Century. He felt as if he had a duty having been allowed by God to see from the mountain top. He spoke of encountering the hoses and not fearing for he knew water…He was able to accept his lot, his role in life. He spoke with a sort of a acceptance of hardships inflicted upon him and those he loved. He even accepted the threats and the injuries, and ultimately he was killed, but as I listened to his last speech I never got the impression he was giving even an inch of himself away in his acceptance of what fate decreed. To see the speech,
Acceptance is something I’ve not come close to achieving. A large part of me looks at my MS and tries to pretend it’s just another obstacle to be ignored and denied until I can no longer do so. For what it’s worth, this attitude drives my wife nuts! I understand why, it’s just if I stop when I first feel signs of my body stressing, I may as well stay in bed. For me, stopping to ask for and receive help for every inconvenience would require me to stop being whom I wish to be.
Why define yourself by what you can and can not do? My first thought was “Well then how are we to define ourself?” The best I can come up with is “Why not define yourself by your dreams, what you attempt, and by whom you inspire?”
Remember, so much can be and is done by those who never stopped to consider why they couldn’t.
I wish I had MLK’s view from the mountain. For now, I’m happy to live now with the hindsight of history to let his words and deeds along with the words and deeds of all those who came before me inspire me.
Have you ever stopped to think who makes up the mountain of your inspiration? Parents, holy men and women, and thinkers of by gone eras have all added to the mountain I see before me. Thinking of the view I imagine if only I could climb it. However, I find myself more often than not wandering through the darkness holding a torch hoping to find others to ease the loneliness of the dark. http://thelifewelllived.blogspot.com/2007/07/year-into-it-all-when-i-first-began.html
I envy MLK’s dream and vision. I also find it interesting to think MLK’s I have a dream speech is the one for which he is most famous when I think the mountain top speech is every bit as good and significant.
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