The first time I heard
about Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr) was probably in my junior high school. The
time I thought he was a Martino from the other town since there were a bunch
Martinos. It was even completely indistinguishable between these two soundings, to
me. My history teacher might have mentioned MLK's name for a number of times
and even have taught me about what he did, where he was from, and so on. However, his name and story were not that important other than I had to turn the memory on for, at the time, my
leaders’ names like Soekarno, Soeharto and some other great leaders from the
former ruler of my country Timor Leste. Those leaders’ names gave me a grade,
once their names were spelled correctly and well defined of their roles in the
answer sheets, ‘yea’ to everyone in the class while waiting for a praise from
the teacher. This situation led me to a blank insight about this great Man until I visited his center (Martin
Luther King Jr. in Atlanta – Georgia) a couple of months ago. It was the
first time too I could distinguish the name of Martino and Martin in essence.
I visually traced the history of his role on modernizing the American society by
walking in to a great museum which is housing the enormous records both hard and
soft. If I just know who MLK really was (what a retarded history
follower), I bet most of you knew him ten folds than I do. But, follow me since
not everybody has visited his museum luckily stepping on his footsteps maybe. I am telling my experience because I am always keen to hear back from people who have visited historical places or met the world great leaders and even notorious leaders too. Here I am exchanging my experience with other people as a return for those whose articles I have read.
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| Wall Sign |
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| MLK Jr. House, in where he was born |
Today, Monday 20th
of January 2014, is the right time to tell about my visit to the museum.
American public pays a tribute to his day by staying home. This is to tell the generations that he was the motor for the civil
right as we all know. What impressed me personally nowadays is the US has been
and will be a bigger melting pot. Here is the actual effect of this great Man’s
lead: US becomes a modernized nation with a tremendous luring potency for the
foreigners to come either for work or study, and I imagine I would have been segregated
on board, at the airport terminal, in the campus, which I could only share one
toilet, one kitchen and etc. with the similar looking physical appearance
individuals if MLK did not do his great job. In theory, segregation based on the color of skin, social status, and religion has been ended long time ago prior my
birth and of course my visit recently. However, some type of discrimination at personal level may still exist. Now US has been a truly diverse society where everybody can
get and express anything freely unless he is indolent. Any color can line up
randomly on the checkout counter at Publix, Walmart, Target and etc. Wider
effect, every foreigner can eat pizza, hot dog, drink coca cola, and Pepsi as much
as he wants. And eventually he is free to become a fat man or woman by gobbling
junk foods. Those are the essence that I extract from Martin Luther King’s achievements at the time. You will know what effect he had made to the American
society by reading horrible segregation history and compare it with today’s.
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| Horrible Segregation Picture |
Besides of having
superficial knowledge about his achievements from google, Wikipedia, I have also
seen his remnants in the museum that really picture out the whole story deeper.
Once I entered the gate, I sensed his greatness from the buildings’ elements
and the area’s size. Several buildings were preserved and the others were
post-event-built structures. That’s because the need for space since Martin
Luther King left a tremendous amount of hard and soft records. Interestingly,
the museum was built right in the area where he was born, lived in, and he preached
on every Sunday. In short, the center packs every important objects and records
in it.
There
is nearly no wall in each building left empty of his quotes and events' succinct
descriptions. Words might also psychologically effective for the visitors to
understand his personality and mission. I felt that way when I read many quotes
hooked on the wall; the ridiculous thing though I don’t remember any of these quotes.
But, I could just look it up if I want to re tweet it to somebody else. The
gist is everybody can learn the essence silently instead of singing loudly
about his great memorization on those quotes. In addition to the quotes, documentary
films, his private house, church, personal belongings, official documents and many
other historical remains were displayed and opened to the public with no
significant restrictions to see and touch. I mean to say that I nearly saw
every single thing that I would like to see.
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| Event Description |
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| Saying |
After
visiting the Martin Luther King Center, I came across an inner mirror to
reflect what I have seen in that museum with the something back home. I have not
found any records saying Martin Luther was a corrupt person, a selfish person and/or have committed other insane things; somebody tell me if you find one.
Therefore, my inference is that he was a great role model for not only
Americans but also for everybody whose live is still in the uncertainty because of
the leaders’ failure. Back home, Timorese have some great leaders who had done
something similar to what MLK had led for Americans. Now, story has passed; for
those who have died, only records can tell the future generations, and for
those who still alive, only deeds can tell other people whether their are still
great leaders or not. It is actually intricate for the existing leaders to keep performing
excellently for every single group’s interest in a society because there is a huge temptation
in the sphere. The temptation may come from the different directions and could tear the leaders’ moral immune
system if they are frail morally. It could make them fall apart even though they have done great things for the people formerly. If only the leaders still have time to show the folks
like what Martin Luther had shown to the world, their names would always be remembered
in any occasion. Otherwise the museum where their history is going to be preserved would only be a dating venue for
the couples instead of a pilgrimage venue.
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| MLK Jr's tomb there on the strait view |
Today’s
holiday coincidentally does match with one of my photo folders. I visited Martin
Luther King Center months ago, but I thought it is good to share something here with the folks who may come across this personal blog.
Hope this gives you an
inspiration….
