it was like someone took the soul out of the air…
I am watching CNN and they are reviewing some of the notes they’ve received in response to their special on the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A viewer said that he remembered sitting in a coffee shop, being served by his regular waitress, Miss Mary, when a gentleman came running in off the street saying, “They done shot the King.” This viewer said that Miss Mary started to cry - a cry that he still hears today; a cry, this viewer said “could only be cried by the granddaughter of a slave.” Another viewer said he remembered walking out into the streets of Memphis and, “it was like someone took the soul out of the air.” I was almost seven years old when Dr. King was murdered. I lived a pretty sheltered young life - my father was in the Air Force and, by that time, he was an Officer and we were living at (the then called) SAC (Strategic Air Command) Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska (Offutt Air Force Base - where dubya was taken underground during the September 11th attacks). Outside of a few transitional months, all of my first almost-ten years of life were spent living on Air Force bases. It is a very sheltered world on a military base - I went to school on the base. We shopped on the base. Our doctors, hospital, dentists, church (we called it Chapel) all were on the base. We did go off the base, and, in Omaha especially, I got to see a lot of things “off base”, the Harlem Globetrotters and the College World Series to name two. But, looking back now, I know how incredibly sheltered my life was. I was certainly old enough to remember when Dr. King was killed…but I don’t. I wish I did ~ I feel badly that I don’t. When push comes to shove, how many national events in my lifetime can really be described as taking the “soul out of the air”? There are many national events I remember ~ the Olympic hostages, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, and the September 11 terrorist attacks to name just a few. But, and I mean no disrespect at all, I am not sure that any of those events (maybe 9-11) took our collective soul away. I am not African American, but I am raising African American daughters. I imagine many felt like the dream died that day in Memphis forty years ago…and our nation certainly has given many reason to still believe that today. For the sake of my daughters ~ for the sake of us all ~ it is up to us all to make sure we keep that dream alive. The soul of our nation, and the soul of all her people, should demand no less.