Day: April 4, 2013

  • martyrs, today and always

    Early morning, April 4
    Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
    Free at last, they took your life
    They could not take your pride

    In the name of love!
    What more in the name of love?
    In the name of love!
    What more in the name of love?
    In the name of love!
    What more in the name of love...

    Those are lyrics to U2's song, "Pride in the Name of Love" which is mainly about the death of Martin Luther King Jr. on this date in 1968. Two months later Robert Kennedy, brother of slain President John F. Kennedy was killed as well. The song also has references to Judas, Oscar Wilde, Robinson Crusoe and slavery and is sung in an anthem style, with Bono's splendid, emotive voice in the lead.
    I've written before about JFK's assassination as my earliest memory here , but I wonder what the accumulative effect of all of those killings were on my young psyche. Not to mention seeing footage of troops fighting in Vietnam on the news, especially when my sister & I came home for lunch during our years at elementary school. I was one of those nerdy kids who was reading the paper at a young age and not just the comics. I was very aware of current events, even if I didn't completely understand them or know much about the back stories to the events. Is that why I've always been so interested in history? Alternately, is that why I've always been so filled with anxiety? But thousands of other kids, including my slightly younger sister, was also exposed to the same events in varying degrees & they are different.
    Of course, the late 20th Century was not the only one where revolutionaries and potential saviors of humankind were killed before their time, but due to modern technology, was some of the most documented ones. And still there remain so many questions, less of the whys, than who. For now I understand that anyone who shakes up the status quo, who shines a light on people doing wrong and points to a better way will be in danger. And it's depressing to think how much more evolved we would be as a species, had at least some of those people been allowed to fulfill their promise and make things better.