Comments on: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. http://cascadiajournal.com/2009/01/rev-martin-luther-king-jr/ Liberal Musings From Cascadia - Comments on Places, People, and Politics Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:18:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kal http://cascadiajournal.com/2009/01/rev-martin-luther-king-jr/comment-page-1/#comment-308 Kal Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:06:55 +0000 http://cascadiajournal.com/?p=314#comment-308 I grew up in a town where we had a bi-racial couple with a son that went to our high school. We also had a family from Vietnam living down the road. I believe there might have been a couple of 3rd generation Mexican families living in our small NW town as well. The rest of the town was made up of Scandinavian descent. I never really experienced anything but an occaional bigoted remark from older generations and I didn't really understand the bigger picture until I joined the service. The world was a lot bigger than my back yard. Because of who I am and where I was raised -I had a total lack of comprehension to this race issue. It never has occured to me to seperate myself from others based on their skin tones. My skin was always the whitest in the class (Finnish ancestry) and everyone I know is darker than myself. I do remember the radio had a program that aired in 1979 that had scientist's on it who said that black skined people were related to gorillas. That was the stupidest thing I ever heard - but how many people believed such bigoted remarks? While I didn't experience the race card, I have have witnessed ecomonic segregation and I've seen segregation based on mental and physical capabilties as well as sexual prefrences. Seeing the work that Martin Luther King and several activist like him gives me hope that soon there will be changes in how our children and there children view people's diffrences. I am not naive to think these changes will occur tomorrow, but I have hope and that's a start. ~Kal I grew up in a town where we had a bi-racial couple with a son that went to our high school. We also had a family from Vietnam living down the road. I believe there might have been a couple of 3rd generation Mexican families living in our small NW town as well. The rest of the town was made up of Scandinavian descent.

I never really experienced anything but an occaional bigoted remark from older generations and I didn’t really understand the bigger picture until I joined the service. The world was a lot bigger than my back yard.

Because of who I am and where I was raised -I had a total lack of comprehension to this race issue. It never has occured to me to seperate myself from others based on their skin tones. My skin was always the whitest in the class (Finnish ancestry) and everyone I know is darker than myself.

I do remember the radio had a program that aired in 1979 that had scientist’s on it who said that black skined people were related to gorillas. That was the stupidest thing I ever heard – but how many people believed such bigoted remarks?

While I didn’t experience the race card, I have have witnessed ecomonic segregation and I’ve seen segregation based on mental and physical capabilties as well as sexual prefrences. Seeing the work that Martin Luther King and several activist like him gives me hope that soon there will be changes in how our children and there children view people’s diffrences. I am not naive to think these changes will occur tomorrow, but I have hope and that’s a start.

~Kal

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