Category: Martin Luther King

A Road to Character

On By scottpetersenIn Chicago Lights Tutoring, David Brooks, Martin Luther King, The Road to Character, Walter Lippmann2 Comments

When I was a tutor with Chicago Lights Tutoring, each week I would put a quotation relating to character on a 3″ x 5″ card for my student (many from John Wooden – like those in June 16’s post).   To me, the reading, writing and arithmetic are all important.  But developing character is just as important. 

One of my favorite books is David Brooks wonderful work The Road to Character.  Brooks opens with reference to the end of World War II — a victory of epic proportion.  He observes that our parents and grandparents did not go around telling each other how great they were.  The collective impulse was to warn themselves against pride.  And self-glorification.  But Brooks observes that there has been a shift in ensuing generations.  From a culture of humility to a culture of I am the center of the universe.  Brooks calls it “The Big Me.”  Fame and fortune used to rank low as life’s core ambitions.  Today, those goals have moved to the top.  Yet curiously some people push to censor the teaching of virtue, character and integrity in schools.

Walter Lippmann said that when “good” and “evil” are reduced to “how we feel” about something, then society loses the objective standards necessary for truth and order. Martin Luther King delivered a sermon in 1954 on the topic of “right” and “wrong.” “I’m here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It’s wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong! It’s wrong in America, it’s wrong in Germany, it’s wrong in Russia, it’s wrong in China! It was wrong in 2,000 B.C., and it’s wrong in 1954 A.D.” As both men later said – the concepts of right and wrong are woven into the fabric of the universe.

How do you feel about that?

Free at Last

On By scottpetersenIn Martin Luther KingLeave a comment

[A timely repeat from February 12, 2022] I was there – live and in person – when Martin Luther King delivered his speech which ended with the words “free at last, free at last, thank God a’mighty we are free at last.” It was an amazing day – but it was not at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. It was in Miami Beach in 1961.

When I was 14 years old, the American Lutheran Church Luther League Convention was held in Miami Beach, Florida, August 15-20, 1961. St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mt. Prospect sent a contingent of “Hi Leaguers” to this august August event. And I was one of them. Dr. King was the keynote speaker.

Dr. King’s speech on that special and memorable day was recorded – and transcribed – and can be found at https://soundcloud.com/user-238560644/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-speaking-at-the-alc-luther-league-convention-in-1961  Over the last few days, I revisited the transcription of that speech 61 years ago. “Powerful” is an understatement. They are words that we would be well advised to remember. And incorporate into our lives. A few examples which apply today. . . .

“The world in which we live is a neighborhood, and we face the moral responsibility of making it a brotherhood. We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.”

“All life is inter-related and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny so that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

” . . . there is a voice crying through the vista of time saying to every potential Peter ‘put down your sword.’ History is replete with the bleached bones of nations. History is cluttered with the wreckage of communities that fail to follow this command.”

And he quotes John Donne – “No man is an island entirely of itself — every man is a piece of the continent – a part of the main.”

The words of Dr. King are worth reading. And re-reading. Perhaps one day, “all of God’s children” can join hands – and be “free at last.”

Free at Last

On By scottpetersenIn Martin Luther King, St. Mark Lutheran ChurchLeave a comment

[A timely repeat from February 12, 2022] I was there – live and in person – when Martin Luther King delivered his speech which ended with the words “free at last, free at last, thank God a’mighty we are free at last.” It was an amazing day – but it was not at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. It was in Miami Beach in 1961.

When I was 14 years old, the American Lutheran Church Luther League Convention was held in Miami Beach, Florida, August 15-20, 1961. St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mt. Prospect sent a contingent of “Hi Leaguers” to this august August event. And I was one of them. Dr. King was the keynote speaker.

Dr. King’s speech was recorded – and transcribed – and can be found at https://soundcloud.com/user-238560644/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-speaking-at-the-alc-luther-league-convention-in-1961  Over the last few days, I revisited the transcription of that speech 61 years ago. “Powerful” is an understatement. They are words that we would be well advised to remember. And incorporate into our lives. A few examples which apply today. . . .

“The world in which we live is a neighborhood, and we face the moral responsibility of making it a brotherhood. We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.”

“All life is inter-related and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny so that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

” . . . there is a voice crying through the vista of time saying to every potential Peter ‘put down your sword.’ History is replete with the bleached bones of nations. History is cluttered with the wreckage of communities that fail to follow this command.”

And he quotes John Donne – “No man is an island entirely of itself — every man is a piece of the continent – a part of the main.”

The words of Dr. King are worth reading. And re-reading. Perhaps one day, “all of God’s children” can join hands – and be “free at last.”

Free at Last. . . .

On By scottpetersenIn American Lutheran Church Luther League Convention 1961, Martin Luther King, St. Mark Lutheran ChurchLeave a comment

I was there – live and in person – when Martin Luther King delivered his speech which ended with the words “free at last, free at last, thank God a’mighty we are free at last.” It was an amazing day – but it was not at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. It was in Miami Beach in 1961.

When I was 14 years old, the American Lutheran Church Luther League Convention was held in Miami Beach, Florida, August 15-20, 1961. St. Mark Lutheran Church in Mt. Prospect sent a contingent of “Hi Leaguers” to this august August event. And I was one of them. Dr. King was the keynote speaker.

Dr. King’s speech was recorded – and transcribed – and can be found at https://soundcloud.com/user-238560644/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-speaking-at-the-alc-luther-league-convention-in-1961 This last few days, I revisited the transcription of that speech 61 years ago. “Powerful” is an understatement. They are words that we would be well advised to remember. And incorporate into our lives. A few examples which apply today. . . .

“The world in which we live is a neighborhood, and we face the moral responsibility of making it a brotherhood. We must learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.”

“All life is inter-related and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny so that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

” . . . there is a voice crying through the vista of time saying to every potential Peter ‘put down your sword.’ History is replete with the bleached bones of nations. History is cluttered with the wreckage of communities that fail to follow this command.”

And he quotes John Donne – “No man is an island entirely of itself — every man is a piece of the continent – a part of the main.”

The words of Dr. King are worth reading. And re-reading. Perhaps one day, “all of God’s children” can join hands – and be “free at last.”