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| Friends don't have to look like us. :) |
Feeling literally under the weather today! We were awakened a few times last night with heavy storms going through but even then I was surprised to see the tornado warning icons on the TV screen this morning.
Temperature is dropping all day with snow to move in soon. It is not nice to do such a thing to my head. Yuk... Thankfully, I was able to bake two loaves of chocolate chip pumpkin bread as promised hubby and I'm turning leftover meatloaf into shepherd's pie for dinner (cheating and using instant mashed potatoes but no one notices in this dish).
Just dropping in to add a little to yesterday's post. My husband once asked me why I admire Martin Luther King, Jr. so much. I know he was not a perfect man or minister but my family has a Southern tradition so I grew up knowing racism while it kinda' passed hubby by as he grew up just outside of Chicago. He certainly saw it as a soldier in Viet Nam.
I remember when I saw the first African American person as a child, washing windows at J. C. Penney's. We had just one or two African American students in our large high school (large after three counties were incorporated into one school). It wasn't until I was married and lived near the University that I began to meet people from all races.
But I grew up with... talk. Talk I didn't like. Talk that disturbed my soul. I know there was a huge difference in this country regarding race before and after MLK. I may not be very fond of our current President but I'm thrilled a person of color can hold the office in the same lifetime as one who remembers growing up with... talk. Stupid talk... and pictures of colored only bathrooms and water fountains and sadly... churches.
Racism is far from over, I don't think it ever will be on this side of Eternity for it even fills the Word of God. Mankind doesn't trust men who don't look like him... same for womankind. But it is a lot better than it used to be.
Because we live near a large University, with one of the highest ratios of foreign students in the country... we have a little bit of Heaven on Earth. How? Well, the Bible tells us there will be represented every tribe and nation so we may as well learn to get along now.
For an excellent book about living with racism and overcoming it, I highly recommend Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary, Family and Me. I enjoyed this book very much.
6 comments:
I grew up in a multi - cultural church - it has been so different for my children living where we live. Not much ethnicity differences but some.
Answers in Genesis has a great presentation called "one Blood" it is on dvd, and addresses the fact that there is only one race on earth - the human race! We all are descendants of Adam and Eve and therefore share the same blood. I think racism started when God scattered the people and the languages after the Tower of Babel. I believe you are right, we don't trust those we don't know or look like us or talk like us.
Just my thoughts today...good post, friend!
Deanna
Absolutely! Thank you for a great posting.
Dee from Tennesssee
Teaching my lil students about MLK was one of the highlights of my year ....LOVED it!! A hero of mine plus all the ones behind the scenes who worked diligently without credit and all those that marched ...I can go on and on!! (Curious about what you meant about hubby and Vietnam - was your husband a combat infantry soldier? Mine was -- and he had just left the south where the "signs" were well established just a few months prior to moving where he was actually drafted -- he said that (and he has only talked about Vietnam rarely until the last cpl of years - I have learned more in the last cpl of yrs than the previous 38-39 yrs)...anyway...lol....he said that "in the field"...that it didn't matter what color anybody's skin was-- they were literally fighting for their lives - each others' lives. Am I making any sense....lol But I was curious about the difference if there was one.) Now THAT is train wreck of a sentence....lol
This is a great post. I grew up in Hawaii and my family has been blessed to become very multicultural over the years. I remember how appalled I was when I encountered blatant racism by one of my family members in Ohio when visiting relatives there. It made me sick to my soul...I could not understand (and still don't) why the color of someone's skin should ever matter or be used as a weapon to hurt them.
Thank you for your further thoughts on MLK. No, he wasn't perfect just like every other human ever born.
Another book recommendation? Oh dear. Yours are always so good. A Severe Mercy arrived today. As is my habit, I read the final chapters first. Oh I need two aspirin or a stiff drink. Unsettling. Sad. Inspirational. Rough. Deep. Wide. Heavy. Sigh. I'll start with the prologue tomorrow and read straight through.
Wonderful post! I'm also not fond of the current administration. But I was happy as an American, a black American in particular, to see how far our country has come in electing its first black president. I'll have to check out the Condoleezza Rice book. I love her!
Mary Ellen
The Working Home Keeper
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