Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

It's cold today but bright and clear. The chill winter is a price I'm willing to pay for the return of bright skies.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, and The Gryphon had the day off. I still had to work, but he hung out at my place, relaxing, playing video games and working on some things on his laptop. In between my assignments, we go to spend some time together.

I cooked us dinner from a recipe in the Weight Watchers cookbook Mom got me for Christmas. It was a pasta dish with broccoli, tomatoes and onions, and it turned out tasty.

Also this weekend, The Gryphon took some time and helped me with some design aspects of the upcoming issue of Wild Violet. Namely, he put together a style sheet which will format the text for each page. This will make the design process easier, since it makes it much easier to make universal changes in, say, the type style or color.

It took us a little while to reconcile some differences between Internet Explorer and Netscape, but The Gryphon eventually figured it out.

There was, of course, some network news coverage yesterday of Martin Luther King Day, namely of the service held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached. His son, Martin Luther King III, led a service that included speeches by other dignitaries. In his address, Martin Luther King III asked the congregation to remember his father's legacy of peace as the United States wages war in Iraq and his message of compassion in light of the tsunami disaster.

Depending on which network covered the event, some failed to mention his remarks on the Iraq war and only the remarks on the tsunami disaster, which is a far less controversial issue.

For those who might have forgotten, Martin Luther King was opposed to the Vietnam War, a position which wasn't popular with the mainstream at that time. And yet, today when we look back on those days, his positions seem like common sense.

This makes me wonder what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would say about these world events himself, were he here, and how the networks would cover him today. I wonder if people like Bill O'Reilly would treat him like a fringe wacko, inviting him on simply to call him names and talk over his arguments.

Would his ideas about equality, a universal family of nations, be viewed as too idealistic, too liberal, too lefty? Perhaps they would. But they were in his day, as well. So as we celebrate, remember how strong he was, how excellent a leader, to reconcile the vast differences in our riven society through idealistic talk about love and togetherness.

And believe, brother and sister, believe.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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