Changed Lives

As night fell acrid smoke sifted from the east. Odd in itself; prevailing winds come from the west. In the window, smoke; sky glowing from city lights ten miles distant. Sirens sounding, moving near and far. Chaos at work. How near?

Rioting underway. Throughout Chicago. So many neighborhoods burning. Now afire, tomorrow blackened buildings, charred hulks of cars, sagging utility poles, wires dragging the ground. And homes empty, burned out; destroyed.

People hurt. Cuts from broken buildings, glass and falling timbers. Trip on uneven sidewalks; skinned knees and sprained ankles. Running. From the scene. To safety or to an opportunity to take from the white man?

Store fronts smashed and looted. Anger. Danger. Hurt. Revenge. Getting mine. Getting even.

The year is 1968. Warm spring April. The year has been tumultuous already. More tumult to come. And the year before, too. Social change is taking place. Big change. Reluctant change for some; so desired and needed by others. Inevitable. Injustice causes that. So many hurting. Real pain. Not imagined. Justice. We ask for justice. Generations of it.

He asked for it; not for himself; for his people. Our people. Americans all! Dignity defined him. Even in death. Dignity as epitaph. Fear killed him. And ignorance.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meant different things to so many different people.  In death he became a symbol of unity for black and white, native and immigrant, young and old – Americans all! He stood for justice and was slain for justice. A martyr to truth. And courage. Ugly but plain for all to see. How we treat our heroes. Those who dare to speak out. Dare to form words and sentences that reflect reality. Not apparent to some; they resist the words. They reflect their image. Their ugly truth!

No, Dr. King spoke the nation’s truth about us; all of us. Not always easy to hear. Repugnant. He didn’t make it up. It was the mirror of our lives he held up so we could see and understand. See ourselves. Understand ourselves. Reporting reality to us. Prophesying what might happen if we didn’t change. Telling us what had already happened to change lives, for the worse. Because of collective action, or inaction……
 
During that day in my life, the phone rang. The city closed down. Suburbs asked people to stay home, off the streets. Harm’s way was everywhere. We all were threatened. But we had to do something.

The church calling tree was activated. Food kitchens were being set up throughout west side Chicago neighborhoods. To take in the now homeless families. To feed them and clothe them. To care for them. And in so doing care for ourselves. We all needed it.

 
We went. We cooked. We cleaned and scrubbed. Some volunteers fainted from the chaos, the demand to work harder, harder…..But cooler hands came to help. More meals cooked and served. More clothes pulled from donors, sorted and delivered to those in need, sudden need. Of course they had already been in need. For generations. But that we ignored. Today we respond to the obvious need. Its suddenness.

More church calls. Services at church tonight. Pulled together by volunteers. People who believed in civil rights. Correcting injustice. Repairing an image of a proud nation… its image of freedom and liberty….so tarnished…..so unspeakably at odds with its current reality. The ‘land of the free, the home of the brave…’ besmirched by ignorance and injustice, and hideous fear of….of what, exactly?

Whatever, we had things to do. To respond. To fulfill our emotional need.  

Hurt. Church. Worship service. Not large enough crowd to fill the main sanctuary; use the chapel. It will hold 25, plus the balcony, and some standing room. That should be enough. But it wasn’t. It couldn’t contain the hundreds who needed to hear words of compassion and solace. The words of faith, faith in God, faith in each other……faith that we would recover from this hideous sense of evil in our land.

The tears flowed. The prayers were fervent. The chords of agreement, of oneness were heard. We salved one another. The hug was universal. We were embraced.

This was April, 1968 in Oak Park, Illinois. A mostly white suburb on the western border of Chicago, ten miles from Lake Michigan. And it was a new day.

That experience led me to take off work and find my way to the seminary. And I enrolled. It was time to rebuild my life into one of service. And justice.

Martin Luther King. His life changed a nation. Changed the world. One life at a time. Still does.

He changed mine. And I walked a new path.

January 17, 2012