'Cause
forty years is forty years
And I was only fifteen then.
--
Ferron
-- Shadows on a Dime
Amidst breakfast and anxiety about
the rash of car break-ins/thefts yesterday I heard on
WBUR that there was going to be a walk to Boston Common
to commemorate
a walk there forty years ago
led by Martin Luther King. There was also an anti-war
thing going on at the Common yesterday, so I guess it was
a busy day. Anyway, back to the walk they were talking
about: In April of 1965, Dr.
King led a three-mile walk from Roxbury to a rally at
Boston Common to protest de facto school segregation in
Boston. For the longest time I have misremembered this
event as having happened when I was 12. I was 14. Just
turned 14 at the time. Forty years ago.
I've written about this before, but
forty years is forty years and I was only fourteen
then -- to paraphrase the Ferron song I now have
running around in my head alternatiing with
If
You Miss Me from the Back of the
Bus. I had half a mind
to chuck all the weekend plans and drive down to
Washington to pay my respects to Rosa Parks. I had half a
mind to blow off the book fair and go to both the
anti-war thing and the anniversary walk. What mind caused
me to carry on with previously made plans, I don't know.
My gratitude to Rosa Parks is in my heart and will always
be there. The profound impact of being on Boston Common
40 years ago is still imprinted in my soul.
There's another song we used to
sing in my youth :
One
man's hands can't tear a prison down
Two men's hands can't tear a prison down
But if two and two and fifty make a million
We'll see that day come round
We'll see that day come round.
--Pete
Seeger (I think)
So much has changed in 40 years and
so much has yet to change. Some days I think nothing I do
can possibly matter. I needed to be reminded that one
person does make a difference because one person's
actions have a ripple effect on two and two and fifty and
the world changes. I've got to remember to be the change
I wish to see in the world.