Caribbean: Thank You, Dr. <PERSON> · Global Voices
Today, the United States marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day – a floating holiday which celebrates the birthday of the late civil right leader. The occasion resonates with Caribbean bloggers, both at home and throughout the diaspora and a few of them share their thoughts…
Jamaican litblogger <PERSON>, who lives in Miami, Florida, acknowledges the impact that Dr. <PERSON>'s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” has had on his life, noting that his latest book “include[s] a few of the lessons that [he] had learned from reading and teaching Dr. <PERSON>'s letter to [his] undergraduate students at Miami Dade College”. He calls Dr. <PERSON>'s letter “one of the great moral texts of the twentieth century, [which] should be required reading in the training of young minds.”
Cuban diaspora blogger <PERSON> put his tribute into “a little photo and video montage”, made from images he took during a visit to The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. His compatriot, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter, also acknowledges the importance of the day:
The critiques against <PERSON> and nonviolence are of importance today because around the world in Egypt, Tunisia, Burma, Cuba and elsewhere movements have emerged that are inspired by <PERSON>'s example of nonviolent struggle. In the United States elements within the Occupy Wall Street movement have embraced <PERSON> and are organizing acts of remembrance on his birthday.
In the U.S. 192
Virgin Islands, Live De Life uploads a video of <PERSON> performing the “Ballad of Martin Luther King”, saying:
Figured this was appropriate for the holiday.
Finally, Afrobella posts a heartfelt “thank you” to Dr. <PERSON>…”for everything”:
Dr. <PERSON> was assassinated 44 years ago, and in the sands of time it is easy to forget that Dr. <PERSON> was a real person. A man with a beautiful wife and family. A man who became the public face of a movement. A man who tirelessly worked, marched, got arrested, spoke eloquently on the topics of peace, love, and justice — and ultimately gave his life to the cause of racial equality.
Thank you, Dr. <PERSON> Jr. Without you, who knows where we would be today.
The thumbnail image used in this post, “Martin Luther King, Jr. Portrait”, is by ctankcycles, used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Creative Commons license. Visit ctankcycles’ flickr photostream. 192