Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993 TAG: 9301180338
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHARON D. LONG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A LETTER OF LOVE TO AN INNOCENT CHILD
DEAR Jessica,I haven't forgotten that day last year when you came home from your second-grade class so excited after you had learned about Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday. In your beautiful white innocence, you looked up at me and asked: "Mama, do you know about Martin Luther King Jr.? He had a dream that black people and white people would become friends - did his dream come true?"
Then, in mortification, I answered after long moments of silence: "Yes, uh, no, honey, his dream has not exactly come true. Somehow, it's had a beginning and many people still believe in the dream, but somehow it's not come true the way Dr. King hoped it would. As long as there are multitudes of people who judge the value of another person by their outward appearance, his dream has not come true."
After almost a year of feeling the arrow of justice pierce my soul, truth lifting the protective shield of passivity and adult sophistication from my brain, I have a better answer: "You are living in what is the greatest nation on Earth, but it has heart trouble. Not long ago, it suffered a heart attack named, `There is no justice for Rodney King.'
"The world has heart trouble: It's called fascism, racism, prejudice, anti-Semitism. But here in America we were given a choice; a prophet was sent. Martin Luther King Jr. presented truth to us from a life of suffering, with an outstretched, kind hand.
"Someday I'm not just going to play you the recording, as I have done, of that speech about the dream. I'm going to show you how policemen turned water hoses and billy sticks on innocent, nonviolent people, including children, who were asking for freedom.
"I'm going to let myself get angry enough to show you all the truth, including a videotape, much newer, of a young black man being beaten by policemen. Then, we'll look at the newspaper clippings of the jury verdict that has wounded the hearts of many Afro-Americans with angry bitterness, and made a mockery of King's sacrifice.
"It was because of the kind, beautiful words of this great man, and because of his courageous wife who answered `no' when one of her children asked whether they should hate the man who killed their father, that I knew the truth.
"After you know the whole truth, we're going to get down on our knees together and ask God to save America from heart disease. We will pray that this same righteous truth that penetrated my heart as a young child and has touched yours will penetrate those souls still in darkness."
And Jessica, I'm with you - when I grow up, I too what to help Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream come true.
Love, Mama.
Sharon D. Long lives in Blacksburg.