Inauguration underscores meaning of King holiday
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of letters from columnist Paul Graves to his grandchildren.
Dear Katie, Claire and Andy,
I know you won’t be reading this letter right away – especially you, Andy, since you are only 5 years old. But when it comes time for each of you to read this, I want you to think back to two dates in January 2009 as very important days in the life of the United States.
Claire, you may think I’m talking about Jan. 27, your birthday. That day is important to you and to us who love you so much.
But the dates I’m really writing about are Jan. 19 and 20, 2009. They are symbolically powerful for our entire nation.
On Jan. 19 we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. This year that celebration takes on even deeper meaning because of what happens on Jan. 20. That’s the day that Barack Obama officially becomes the president of the United States.
Martin Luther King Jr. and millions of people of all colors and classes worked to bring civil rights to black Americans back in the 1950s and 1960s. Without their incredible passion for justice, I seriously doubt that we would see the inauguration of a black president.
Katie and Claire, you will hear a lot at school about Martin Luther King Jr. Day and about President Obama’s inauguration. I will ask your parents to read this letter to you before Jan. 19, so you know how historic your grandma and I believe these two days are.
We hope you will watch the news broadcasts very carefully. You won’t understand everything that is said about the symbolic impact of President Obama’s election and his leadership in the White House. But in the future, you will be able to tell your own children and grandchildren what you remember about him.
No one knows, of course, what kind of president Barack Obama will actually be. But he was elected by people who believe that his message of hope and his leadership can help fix many of the problems we have in America.
He made some very important and wonderful promises to the American people. I hope he is able to keep most of them. But he won’t be able to keep all of them.
For example, he will find out after he has become president that some of his promises will take a very long time to fulfill – like when you plant a tree seedling, it takes longer to become a tree than we would like. Some of President Obama’s promises will be like that. We must be very patient.
Many of the things that Martin Luther King Jr. said are like planting tree seedlings – they are taking far longer to grow big and strong than we would like.
Like when he said, “Now I say to you today my friends, even though we face difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. … I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ ”
“All men are created equal” is in our country’s Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776. The Rev. King repeated those words in 1963 because they were still a dream for Americans. They still are today.
So for 232 years, Americans have worked hard in many ways for the dream that all people are created equal. And we continue to work hard to make that dream real.
When Barack Obama becomes president on Jan. 20, I hope all Americans – even those who didn’t vote for him – will be reminded that the dream of equal justice for all is still alive in our hearts.
Katie, Claire, and Andy, whenever you think about Jan. 20, 2009, in the future, be proud you are alive at this time in American history. It is a great time to be citizens of this country.
Hopefully, Grampa Graves