“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”-Martin Luther King Jr.
Leaks in the Erie arena ceiling caused the BayHawks game against the visiting Long Island Nets to be suspended last night. A contest that was set to be the backdrop to their beautiful tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The same week that is forever MLK Day like his birthday last week.
But with the game on ice, let’s take a moment to remember the great man.
Look around you now. Look at the people you share your lives with. Look through your phones at the photos of your fondest friends. Look at the people you walk past in the street with peace and smile. You probably see so many different, beautiful cultures coming together right? Without Civil Right leaders like Martin Luther this could have never happened quite as subtly and beautifully like this.
He had a dream and he may not have got there with us, but he made sure that we all saw the promised land.
Now Basketball fans…THAT is a real King.
Despite a trumped up world today that seems to be going backwards. Yesterday’s message from Martin Luther King will echo for eternity. Inspiring us all to feel, do and be better, amongst all the hate and injustice in a world in need of love. MLK was such an eloquent man. Making his points powerfully but calmly and politely with respect for all. And what a point. You see his moving memorial in D.C. You learn the real reason behind the party favour of icon Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’s playing. Name a positive song about the Donald! Will he get a statue without them having to carve a tweeting phone out of stone instead of sacred text?
The tributes in testament to endless. But after the Memphis Grizzlies made a tribute jersey to him two years ago on the 50th anniversary of his death, the Erie BayHawks have got their talons into the design room to come up with an even cooler on-court look that is sure to connect with the kids. Looking somewhere between script and graffiti the simple, yet poignant word of ‘Dream’ is emblazoned all over the apparel as is his stirring speech from the Lincoln steps over the magnificent Mall. The side of the jersey which the Atlanta Hawks G-League affiliate use to honor King in his birthplace of Atlanta also features the man’s perfect portrait.
Bids will be made for the game-worn jerseys with proceeds going to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center which the BayHawks website says aims to “improve the overall conditions of work, play, study, health and living conditions of the people of Erie, Pennsylvania, through an effective program of social services and action”.
This all sounds like a dream coming true, teaching the next generation to dream on.
“When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last’!”-Martin Luther King Jr.
