The frigid weather has led to updates in the events for the MLK Celebration. Among them is the postponement of the Unity March and Community-wide Celebration. This is planned for February.
Tag: Martin Luther King Jr Day 2024
Martin Luther King Day About Peace and Unity
I noticed that Iowa City and Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas have a couple of things in common regarding the celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday this week—one is inclement weather. The other thing is hope for peace and unity.
I was a student at Huston-Tillotson (one of the HBCUs) back in the 1970s. I saw it snow there once. It turns out that one of the MLK events will be postponed to January 27, 2024, and that’s the Austin MLK March. It’ll be too cold, with a chance for freezing rain. The event is billed as the MLK CommUnity March. The MLK Festival and Food Drive has been rescheduled to January 27th as well, and that will be at Huston-Tillotson University. The emphasis is on unity.
In Iowa City, the MLK Peace March on January 15, 2024 will instead be a vehicular parade because of the really cold weather we’ve been having recently. The emphasis is on peace. The parade will start at 9:30 AM.
All of my life I’ve admired Dr. Martin Luther King for his efforts to unite everyone in peace. Despite the world’s current events, I still have hope that the effort will continue.
We all have a lot in common, and it’s not just the weather.
The Intergalactic Angle on Your Point of View
I finally watched the movie “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” the other night. It was released in 2005 and based on Douglas Adams’ book of the same title. In fact, he co-wrote the screenplay. A lot of it was not in the book. I thought a couple of scenes were noteworthy and pretty funny. I made connections to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. annual observance, which is this month.
One of them was the Point of View Gun. It’s probably unfortunate that the main prop was a gun, but hey, it was a ray gun. It didn’t kill anyone and in fact, it caused the person “shot” with it to be able to understand the perspective of another person. It was just temporary, but for a short while it enabled persons or extraterrestrials to understand another’s point of view. It was designed by the Intergalactic Consortium of Angry Housewives to influence their husbands to understand them better.
One of Dr. Martin Luther King’s main points was how important it is to try to understand and validate someone else’s point of view.
One drawback of the Point of View gun (besides the obvious associations with gun violence) was that the effect was specific to whoever was using it. So, when the ultra-maladjusted robot Marvin mowed down a gang of Vogons (hideous and cruel extraterrestrial bureaucrats who destroyed Earth in order to make room for an intergalactic bypass), they all collapsed from depression.
The other scene I thought was funny was the Vogon planet’s slap-happy encounter between the heroes and the creatures shaped like spatulas that popped out of the ground and smacked anyone in the face who had an idea.
I didn’t think the movie was nearly as good as Adams’ book. But I wonder if you could cross the spatula creatures with the Point of View gun that would take the perspective-taking power of the gun and give it to the spatula creatures who would slap you silly whenever you failed to even try to understand another’s point of view. I could use that kind of a slap sometimes.
It’s remarkable the connections you could make between Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Martin Luther King Jr Day 2024!
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day is officially the third Monday of January every year. It’s January 15, 2024 this year. It’s really a community affair, which hopefully expands more broadly out to all people.
There are a number of events planned. In the spirit of emphasizing the community projects, here’s the high points:
The University of Iowa general announcement highlights the food drive and service goals.
The City of Coralville web site lists many activities, including an opportunity to help paint a community mural on January 15th!
The Iowa City web page lists several activities as well, including an MLK Day Family Storytime on January 15th.
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