Remembering

Today we are remembering King.

While I was not born to live through the Civil Rights movement (born early seventies) and I did not experience his tragic death. It seemed as though I did because of the history that I was taught and how my parents impressed upon me how important this day is for all of us and they kept the Black History books in front of me. While I was not born during King's time, when I was a child and old enough, my parents introduced his history to me early on. I knew that every MLK day we had scheduled events to attend honoring this great civil rights leader from a MLK scheduled Breakfast at designated hotels and unity marches honoring his achievement.

It is so easy to forget how far we have come as a people, and yet how far we still have to go, as a nation and a people, when we really dig deeper. As a young AA, I am so thankful to the road that our civil rights leaders paved for us during those tough times. Many times we forget as successful young African Americans of the struggles that so many of our Civil Rights leaders and others fought so hard for so that we could have take part of the dream and live the dream that MLK spoke about.

While I am sad that I was not able to experience the Civil Rights movement, I am honored that I have been able to experience Change for our nation and uniting our people. I am also a little sad today that we are not in DC celebrating as originally planned with family and friends who live there, due to a last minute decision last week due to keeping our priorities in line with this adoption process. I will have to get pictures from my family members who reside in DC and Maryland. However, I am happy to be able to be apart of history this day and tomorrow so that I will be able to share with our children in the future.

My goal is to establish a tradition of service and honor on this holiday with our children when they arrive, as my parents did with me. We reside in the city where the MLK center is and I am proud to say that we are never tired of anyone asking to go visit this site when they visit us. I am looking forward to the day that I can take our children to the center and explore the history that is life changing. From standing in Ebeneazer Baptist church, throwing coins in the wishing well at the center ,visiting Kings birth home on Auburn Avenue to riding our children through the AU Center where they can see that their dreams are not impossible. It is so easy to forget that this should be a day of service since we have busy lives. We must remember that so much was given so that we could have the opportunities and lives that we live now. I hope that we all have an activity planned for next year if we did not do anything this year to honor this holiday and educate our children! Even if it is just reading a book, taking them to a website today, or letting them color a picture after reading to them. I have included a coloring page website and other activities!