Sunday, September 19, 2010

Another America, Another Japan



Lately, I've been watching American leaders' speeches. Actually, only speeches from the 60's and then, only speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr. and the two Kennedy brothers.

What a different world that was. Was that America? America, where black people were seriously lower citizens than the white majority on a very public and open and acceptable level. And there were marches and riots for equal treatment.

On another front, an America where people who may or may not like socialism or communism lose their jobs and are blacklisted from being hired.

And this America where murders of important leaders maybe came to be not so much of a shock and it would be to me... John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy all in the same decade?

It all seems like some legend.

Today's America perhaps is equally strange. I grew up with the news dominated by huge scandal, resulting in only the second presidential impeachment since the beginning. Also terrorism on public buildings... Oklahoma City, September 11. The threat of religious fanaticism violence looming everyday. Maybe America is still insane, just with different symptoms.

We did just elect a black president. That's quite a switch from the 60's.

At the top is a speech by Robert F. Kennedy given in Indianapolis on the night King was assassinated. If you have 5 minutes, please give it a go. Robert Kennedy is credited for helping to calm the people and dissuade them from breaking out in the violence seen in other cities that night. It's short and not complicated, but impressing.

I first read this speech from the plaque on the monument in downtown Indianapolis at the location he gave the speech. I was so impressed.

I don't live in the U.S.A right now. Japan is insane, too. I wonder what it will be like in 50 years. I think Japan can fight through some of the insanities, also. There are tensions with the ethnic minorities living in Japan, though they're not at the level of some of the civil rights injustices in the U.S.A of the past. The presence of the foreigners here are part of the education process. I hope life will be less strained for temporary workers, permanent residents and Japanese citizens of non-Japanese or mixed decent in 50 years. Maybe Japan also must have a Cultural Revolution?

2 comments:

Skip Melanoma said...

Cool post. That video/audio was incredible. It was strange to see him with just notes in his hand giving a speech of that magnitude. You're right, it does seem surreal. But I think that's just the effect of time. Time turns events into history, and history into legend, and legend into fairy tale. I hope that our petty prejudices and battles appear just as unbelievably silly and pointless as the squabbles of past generations can now seem to us.

Becky said...

After watching a video like the one you posted here, I find myself immobilized, needing a leader or something to bring me back to the present where there is much left unaccomplished. Will we as a Nation seek God as Robert Kennedy suggested. Seek Him to fill us with love, wisdom and compassion or will we continue on in self destruction seeking only to fill some personal void. It is a personal decision. Not one that can be pushed upon another.
Thanks for posting--thanks for the reminder.

 
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