Three weeks ago, I was talking on the phone with a friend. They said, “Why Aren’t there protest songs like the 1960s and 70s?” I reflected and yes, prayed about it.
Music is very important in my life. I have sung in church choirs, and enjoy singing all kinds of music – soul, blues, rock and many ballads. Ask my wife, family and neighbors.
I came across “If I Can Dream” by Elvis Presly first recorded in 1968. A tumultuous time in the country: Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated in April and June. Elvis wanted to do something.
One of the kids in our neighborhood remarked, “Was Martin Luther King part of your family?’ I responded, “No, our last name was Kingery.” Reverend King’s “I have a dream” touched me even then as a ten-year-old at Monroe Elementary School in Riverside California. In October 1965, Riverside Unified School District became the first large district in the nation to integrate its schools without a court order. [1]
Dawn Hassett, editor of “No Easy Way” published by Inlandia Institute, said she realized that most white people didn’t realize the extent of segregation.
“I think people really have an odd and mistaken notion of what it was like in California and the West, of what it was like for people who were Mexican American and African American,” she said. “What people think of as the Jim Crow South kind of existed everywhere,” Hassett said.[2]
Today, many do not accept or choose to ignore what is happening our Immigrant, Refugee, and Communities of color. We are all children of God, no exceptions!
I was getting ready for school when I heard Bobby Kennedy had been shot. How could this be? What was happening to the world? At school, we watched the funeral together – Hispanic, White, Japanese, Middle Eastern of ever religion, faith and creed.
Today is no different. Public figures are injured or die, plus regular citizens doing regular things like worshiping, shopping, going to school, participating in family and community events. We must rededicate ourselves together to building a more perfect union with liberty and justice for all.
The phrase “To sing is to pray twice” is attributed to St. Augustine. Colossians 3:16 teaches “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
I hope I am praying twice with my recording of “I I Can Dream”. Captions coming soon,
It is 4:30 in the morning, time to get some rest.
Peace John Kingery
[1] https://www.pressenterprise.com/2014/11/10/riverside-school-desegregation-chronicled-in-new-book/
[2] ibid