Let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream.
For our grandsons and granddaughters remember to remember the dream
Welcome to Songs and Stories from Home as we continue to Remember the Dream. This week: STORIES ABOUND
As a nation we are looking again at ideas and ideals found in the scriptures and embedded in our founding documents. Beginning with the proposition that we are all created equal, and in the eyes of the creator are all equally precious. We are deciding, through our words and by our actions, whether we are going to finally and fully pledge allegiance to those ideas, either standing or kneeling, once and for all.
This is the moment. A moment that begins with the words Black Lives Matter. There have been other moments that have brought us here. Moments filled with ghosts and guardians. Moments filled with inspiration and courage.
It’s my good fortune to be able to live a life singing songs and sharing stories. It became a career when at 21 I replaced Michael Kirkland in a folk singing group, The Brothers Four. My life as a member of that group took on greater meaning when I realized I was not standing in Michael’s shadow but on his shoulders.
For three years beginning in 2014 I was part of half a dozen intergenerational, interracial visits to the American South to see sites, sing songs, and hear stories about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. Many of the songs and stories came firsthand from people who had risked their lives day after day for years because they believed in the idea that we are all created equal and are equally precious.
Bob Zellner is one of those people. A son of the South whose father was once a Klansman. What inspires me most about Zellner, and others like him, is that he, that they continue to dream the dream and do the work, sixty years on. Able to smile and not lose hope. Bob also breathes life into stories that may not be as well known but are important in the struggle. People like Bob also remind me that we not only stand on others shoulders but at times shoulder to shoulder with them. (You can learn more about Bob Zellner in the movie "Son of the South."
Let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream.
For our grandsons and granddaughters remember to remember the dream
