Martin Luther King Jr. Day

We have a great calendar from Creation Ministries International that includes the public holidays of other countries as well as Australia. This is great for remembering South African holidays, and now I am also trying to use it as a prompt to research. In the future I want to teach Elnathan about the holidays other countries celebrate, as this can be a fun way to connect history to the present day and to our own lives.

I have checked out several children's books from our library which include sections on Martin Luther King Jr. These books also include other men and women who are considered to be heroes or campaigners, so I'm learning about lots of other people as well. Even children's history books raise many questions that would be worthy of discussion. They simplify history, and I hope that we will be able to discuss the complexities and the different presentations of the same events.

The history of the civil rights movement provides rich opportunities to discuss the way God uses sinful men and women to accomplish his purposes, the necessity of personal efforts to love people different from ourselves, and the tendency we have to ignore evil. The history of racism in the US has obvious connections to what happened in South Africa.  

Driving Miss Daisy would be a good film to watch at this time of year. It is a touching story of the friendship and respect that develops between an elderly, crotchety Southern lady and her black driver. Miss Daisy goes to an event where Martin Luther King Jr. speaks, and I vividly remember one of the lines from his speech. Evil triumphs because of "the fear and apathy of the people of light".

Right now, though, my little baby is calling out from his cot because he has finished his nap. Right now "ma, ma, ma" is one of the few words in his vocabulary, so it will be a while before I find out whether he is interested in discussions of racism and personal responsibility and US public holidays. In the mean time, I plan to add a book of Martin Luther King's speeches to my reading list.