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"Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"
These lyrics from the U2 song trigger the emotion felt in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum. It is a powerful place. As the kids sat at the restaurant counter where African Americans would not be served, as they walked off the bus Rosa Parks was told to leave, as they peered through the bars of the Birmingham Jail cell where Martin Luther King, Jr was imprisoned for civil disobedience, it is hard to believe that it was not that long ago that our country was a place where such hatred and racism openly existed, and that one man was killed for his message of love...in 1968, a year after I was born. He gave his life to make our country a better place, and while it is a better place than it was back in 1968, we still have so much work to do. As the four of us walked past the hotel room where MLK spent his last night and looked up on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was shot, it begs the question, "What would we be willing to do to stand up against injustice and racism?"
Not ironically, as we exited the museum, we were stopped by a man asking for money who said he just got out of jail and could not find a job. There is so much left to be done.
Memphis is also a city of music, and we got to see that rich history at the Gibson Guitar Factory, the Museum of Rock and Soul, and Graceland. We learned that it was often through music that white and black came together to share something beautiful, to form a new medium of expression based on common experience and found a venue to begin to break down the racial divide.
In the words of Memphis legend B.B. King, "Music is good for everybody. They say it soothes the savage beast. Well, I think there is a beast in all of us. So, let's get some more music and soothe all the beasts out there."
- comments
Tia Trish Wow, I just noticed the language drop down to the right of “Tweet, Like, Share” at the end of your blog entry. Your blog can be instantly translated into any of 104 languages. Very cool! How are you liking the OffExploring app?
Tia Trish Roger Daltrey said some similar words as B.B. King at the end of the Tommy concert the other night in New York: “There’s a Tommy in all of us.” And, he went on, are all the characters in his rock opera. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Who do you want to feed?
Tia Trish I’m reminded of sites I’ve visited: a concentration camp in Germany, Ghandi’s grave in India, and soon the site of Jesus’ crucifixion in Israel. We shall overcome!