The civil rights memorial is beautiful.
It’s small and simple, but you get such feeling from it.
It makes you think about what had to happen there in the South, in our country, to get the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to mean what they actually say.
It took unspeakable courage, wrenching pain, the loss of many lives, and an incredible stick-to-itiveness. I realize I have no concept.
It’s a calm little respite there on the hot sidewalk of downtown Montgomery, just a couple blocks from the big, beautiful, marble-white buildings of the establishment.
The symbolism is huge.
It's really a fountain, there’s water flowing on both parts of the memorial…the wall with the quote by Dr. King and the circular table that documents the big moments of the civil rights struggle—the date of each one carved in stone. But the drops of water falling off of it reminded me of all the small moments it must have taken, of every person who wasn’t heralded like Rosa Parks, who maybe wasn’t the “first” to do anything, but still did it. There were thousands that didn’t get on the buses during the boycott, but walked miles instead. Every drop of water is representing the courageous, un-guaranteed act of every person who said…like Ms. Parks, "Not today. Not anymore.”
I knew the MLK words came from the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, but I couldn't remember in what context he used the Biblical quote, and I couldn’t remember the last time I watched the whole speech. I Googled it, found it online and watched the whole thing. Tears came to my eyes, it was so inspiring.
Freedom. It’s the highest thing. It's the greatest gift, the greatest right, the greatest privilege. It may be the one thing worth whatever it costs to attain.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
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