[The Classics] – Moving past a small minded thought
Earlier today I was reading over a post I made last year about Martin Luther King and I figured I’d just repost part of it and add some things to make it part of “The Classics” series I’ve been doing off and on. For those new around here, “The Classics” are moments in my life that are pivotal in helping define my love for music and culture…
The Fall of 1995 saw me heading to college with nothing but ambition and a whole bunch of baggage from small-town Texas. And by baggage, I don’t mean luggage… I mean all the stuff inside an 18 year old’s head that tells him that he knows everything he needs to know. Why would I need to know anything else.. life was good and friends were plentiful.
But… going to college means getting a new job somewhere and as time went on I knew, without a doubt, I wanted to get a job in a large city like Houston. I had spent some time in Houston right after high school and it was amazing how it expanded what I knew of the world. I realized that living there gave me this huge desire to learn more about history and culture, but to do that I would have to move past a lot of small town prejudice that seemed to be embedded in my head.
So one day I trekked down to the library and started pouring through books (no we didn’t have the internet back then) and among what i read was MLK’s I Have a Dream speech. That day I started to open my mind to things that were outside my normal thoughts and to learn new things like music, people, art, how I had fun, and how to think from others point of view. I made some copies from a book of his speech and hung it over my desk with the words highlighted:
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I’m living proof that even small town boys aren’t immune to change. As my love for more types of music grew I found myself in a small dark and smokey bar in Waco listening to new-found artist Ian Moore sing one of his songs and all of a sudden he wove in the song “Abraham, Martin & John”. It’s a powerful song written by Dion about Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy… all taken in the height of their youth. This songs brings me back to that time every single time I hear it.
“Abraham, Martin & John” by Ian Moore
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Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Won’t you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed alot of people but they say the good they die young
You know I just looked around and he’s gone
Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed alot of people but they say the good they die young
I just looked around and he’s gone
Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Oh Brother Martin.. where have you gone?
He freed alot of people but they say the good they die young
I just looked around and he’s gone