Giles: Remembering Dr. King

A Look At What A Young Preacher Packed Into His 39 Years Before He Was Lost To Us

(CBS)  This coming week marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Our contributor Nancy Giles needs no reminding...

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How can it be 40 years since Dr. King was murdered? It's still so tragic and so depressing, but it's a fact that can't be changed.

And I still wonder: if he just hadn't gone out on the hotel balcony, if he stayed in Atlanta instead of going to Memphis, if there were no such thing as guns …

It's the same loop of thoughts I get every November 22 about President Kennedy, made worse by the film footage of what were the last minutes of his life. You know what's coming, but somehow you keep hoping the car will stop to change a tire and the timing's different and nothing bad happens.

It's frustrating because I only have vague memories of Dr. King when he was alive: seeing his face, his little mustache, and hearing his booming voice on our big black and white TV.

What I remember most is his funeral. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I was fidgeting, and kept looking outside wanting to be out there playing. But Mom said something like "You're all watching this - it's history," and that was that. We all sat inside and watched. I looked at his children and couldn't even imagine what it would be like if my father wasn't there anymore.

Martin Luther King was only 39 years old when he died, but seemed so much older. Or is it that most 39-year-olds these days are self-involved slackers?

He packed so much into his life it's embarrassing. There he was, preaching, planning, writing, marching, spending his 20s and 30s changing this country, while I spent my 20s and 30s paying off college loans and looking for acting work.

He was a legend, but he was also a man. A guy who saved things - his report card from theology school (he got a "C" in public speaking!); the bank deposit slip from his Nobel Prize money; the telegram inviting him to President Kennedy's funeral. His speeches: typewritten with handwritten corrections. He was a reader. A thinker. A man of change.

And he's gone. But his work must live on.

[iamthequeen-]

Such a shame that the pretender to the King throne is someone "acting" for the sake of being elected. King was responsible for advancing civil rights beyond anything that even his family could imagine and now Obama/Wright are reversing those gains with their racist rantings. Obama''s condoning of Rev Wright''s hateful language probably has the good Rev King turning in his grave. But I''m sure Obama will give another "inspiring" speech to commemorate this anniversary of a truly deserving but then hit the campaign trail to pimp King out for more votes.

[thejugghedd]

I would like to express my thoughts on the report given about Dr King. First of all, in this day and time our world focuses on race issues, how different races can%u2019t seem to come together, how different races can%u2019t seem to accept each other%u2019s cultures, possibly accept that Great people come in different shapes sizes and of different ethnic backgrounds or "color".
It seems that in my 29 years of living that I have never seen a "white" man report about a "black" man or vice versa. This report on Dr. King was great. How do you think that society would react if just for once a man or woman reported such a story about Dr. King was white? Don%u2019t you believe that having a "black" lady report about him is keeping everyone separated? Just once I would like to see a white person report something about black history month or possibly a black person cover a story about the pope. Well never get out of thinking this way for years I feel. We talk about it but I believe we just don%u2019t want to deep down inside no matter what race a person is!

[thesongbird1]

White Privilege is such a blinding affliction. To think that Obama is acting to become the President of the United States is absolutly ludicrous. He is just like all the other canditates and is doing whatever it takes to get elected. I ask the queen why is he any different because he is black? I can''t what to see Clinton and McCain "act" and deliver a speech on Race in America"!!! In response to Rev. Wright and his comments, if we are going to hold Obama accountable for his comments then let us too, hold all the people we know personally accountable for their hateful language and actions that we have always made excuse for, or turned a blind-eye too. As a so called Queen are going to hold your followers to a higher standard?

[pelosisaho2]

Having read her previous stuff, I am quite sure Nancy Giles is an Obama supporter. So let me tell her and anyone reading this what we lost when we lost King (and I was NOT a big admirer of his towards the end). We lost a leader who tried to push Black people away from the "victicrat" mentality his disciples Jesse Jackson and Andy Young began to give us after he was murdered. We lost a leader who urged people to look at others by the "content of their character" - not skin color.

Given this, Barack Obama and his little friend, the Right Reverend of the Trinity Nazi Church in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright would have NO place in King''s world.
Furthermore, King was a Republican because he knew and appreciated what the party of Lincoln did; he saw first hand the broken promises of JFK, the party that provided a home to Barack Obama''s friend, Senator Byrd of the 14 hour fiilbuster and the Klan; the party that spawned the Confederacy and Woody Woodpecker Wilson. Obama is the antithesis of everything King stood for - and more.

Shame that almost all of the gains of the last 45 years have been squandered - not by Whitey but by those who should have followed in King''s footsteps, including one Boy Obama.

Take notes, Miss Giles.

[thesongbird1]

Please explain to me what gains have been squandered and why you feel only blacks are responsible for letting it slip away ? Have you ever heard of the Kerner Report? If not you may want to read it before you make limited responses as the one you posted telling Ms. Giles to take note. We all need to take note.

[crater7]

I DO REMEMBER, DR. M. L. KING, HE DID MORE FOR THE MINORITIES OF THIS COUNTRY IN HIS SHORT LIVED LIFE, THAT ALL THE SO CALLED LEADERS OF TODAY,COMBINED HAS BEEN ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH. "HE WAS A MAN OF HONOR, AND TRUTH." HE PRACTICED WHAT HE PREACHED.

THE SAD PART OF THIS STORY IS THAT IN A 30 SECOND FILM CLIP, ONE RACIST PASTOR, BACKED AND DEFENDED BY BARACK OBAMA, HAS MANAGED TO DISGRACE AND DESTROY THE VERY THING DR. KING STOOD FOR,"THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM AND EQUALITY FOR ALL, REGARDLESS OF COLOR OR GENDER."

"DR. KING''S WORD''S DID MATTER"

GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT " G D AMERICA."