COMMUNITY VIEWS

Legacy Of Dr. King: Love And Justice

of 8 years old, I remember walking
he evening of April 4,
into our living room where my par-
1968, was raw and windy
ents were huddled together on the
in inner-city Indianapolis as
couch watching some event on our
a shaken U.S. Sen. Robert
tiny black and white television. Then
F. Kennedy — then a candidate for
it hit me like a thunderbolt
president — climbed atop a
when
I noticed tears on my
milk crate platform. With red
father's
face. I had never
eyes, he addressed the grow-
seen
him
cry. He was (and
ing crowd just minutes after
is)
strong,
unflappable and
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
perfect.
What
could possi-
assassination.
bly
make
him
cry, I won-
Sen. Kennedy said, in a
dered?
Dad
couldn't
speak,
halting cadence, "I had a
so
my
mom
took
me
into
member of my family killed,
the
kitchen
and
explained
but he was killed by a white
that they were watching the
man. What we need in the
MELVIN J.
funeral of a man named Dr.
United States is not division.
HOLLOWELL
Martin Luther King Jr., a
What we need in the United
great leader of our people,
JR.
States is not hatred. What we
who
had been shot. She
Special to
need in the United States is
kissed
me and said that Dr.
the Jewish News
not violence or lawlessness,
King
died
fighting for all
but love and wisdom, and
people
to
be
treated fairly.
compassion toward one another, and a
I
really
didn't
know
what that
feeling of justice towards those who
meant,
but
it
sounded
true.
As I
still suffer within our country, whether
walked
upstairs
and
sat
on
the
bed in
they be white or they be black."
the
dark,
I
started
crying.
I
experi-
Dr. King's life inspired Sen.
enced a strange feeling of being sad
Kennedy, our nation and the world to
and
uplifted at the same time. One
appeal to our best instincts. Dr. King
thing
was clear to me: This man, Dr.
certainly has had that kind of influ-
King,
who made my father cry, was
ence on my life and increasingly on
very
important,
and I wanted his
the lives of my children.
cause
to
be
my
own.
My earliest memory of Dr. King
Shortly thereafter, my cousin, Don-
was not in life, but in death. As a boy
ald Hollowell, visited us from Atlanta.
He was Dr. King's lawyer and one of
Attorney Melvin J. Hollowell Jr., a
the titans of the civil rights move-
Detroit resident, is a shareholder at the
ment. I listened firsthand to his
Butzel Long law firm.
descriptions of the wonderful things

T

Dr. King had done. But it was dis-
turbing to hear accounts of how the
great Dr. King and my cousin Donald
were forced to slip out the back way of
southern courthouses to avoid angry
mobs gathered outside. I quickly
learned that this business of civil
rights could be dangerous, but worth
fighting and even dying for.
Years later, the night before my first
trial as an attorney, I called Donald to
get any last-minute advice he could
share with me. I told him I was
uneasy about whether I would get a
fair hearing before the small town,
out-state district court where the trial
would be held. There was a pregnant
pause on the other end of the line.
Then he asked, "Butch, if you 'can't'
try a case in front of a hostile judge
and hostile jury, why did we send you
to law school?" I came to my senses,
remembering the adversity he and Dr.
King overcame in their court battles.
Suddenly, my case didn't seem so over-
whelming.
For my 11th birthday, my grand-
mother gave me a record album con-
taining Dr. King's greatest speeches. I
memorized all of them, including the
"I have a dream" speech, It gave
"Nono" and the rest of my family
such pride when I won a forensics
contest at Birmingham Brother Rice
High School in the declamation cate-
gory the following year with that
speech.
My two children know a great
deal about Dr. King. Every February,

during the long weekend that
includes the Martin Luther King Jr.
federal holiday, three families,
including ours, rent a place on Wal-
loon Lake near Traverse City. We
bring books and videos on Dr.
King's life. The kids do skits on
events like the march on Washing-
ton and the Montgomery bus boy-
cott.
We want them to understand that
all people, regardless of race, religion
or economic status, are equal and
important and deserving of respect.
But you never know with children
what actually sinks in.
I found out during a recent visit
to Washington, D.C. We took the
children on a tour of the White
House (thanks to U.S. Sen. Carl
Levin), the Lincoln and FDR
Memorials, the Washington Monu-
ment and the U.S. Capitol building
where, in the rotunda, are statues of
America's greatest leaders. A black
granite bust of Dr. King sits at the
eastern end of the hall.
Without any prodding from my
wife or me, both my son and daugh-
ter gravitated to Dr. King's statue.
They ran their hands over the cold
stone; afterwards, they talked about
how good it made them feel to see
Dr. King in such an important
place.
As we celebrate Dr. King's life, let's
remember that his legacy is best honored
by passing on to our children his lessons
of justice, peace and equality.

investing in the economy."
These are three factors for Mideast
peace; all of them are wrongheaded.
The best deal for Israel is to keep the
Golan Heights in its possession. Jewish
soldiers died to regain it. Plus, the Knes-
set voted to incorporate it into Israel
proper. For Syria to regain the Golan
because of the shriveling power of
(Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Barak is
asking for a renewal of conflict.
That the Palestinians will have a
semi-state is unalterably tragic. Not that
the Arabs will rejoice at their fortune at
regaining a portion of "Palestine," and
perhaps prepare for a further assault on
Israel. It is that Israel, to make "peace,"
had to sacrifice part of its homeland to
buy off Arabs who would, and still will,
terrorize Jewish men and women.
Indeed, we Jews should invest in
the economy of Israel. But that can be

done without leaving the U.S. Feeling
the religious and nationalistic pride for
Israel means that we Jews must
become part of the Jewish-Israeli
nationhood and pointedly make
today's peace gamble intolerable.
Without that gamble and return, we
Jews might as well give the remainder
of Israel to the Arabs, be they from
Syria, Egypt or Arab refugees from
across the Jordan River.
However, unspoken in Raviv's glo-
rious descriptions for "peace" was the
undeniable fact that in each case,
Israel was doomed to lose irreplaceable
and valuable territory, its honor and
self-respect soiled — and even its trea-
sured history.

❑

LETTERS

community, not related to war, the
Holocaust or Israel, of the last 100
years. It is an astonishing oversight
that this item was not mentioned in
that entire article.
Otherwise, job well done!

Eric J. Rosenberg
Farmington Hills

Our History
Is Wonderful

7

1/14

2000

32

Although a longtime resident of
Detroit, I never realized the wonder-
ful history of the Jewish people here
("A Century of Jewish Detroit,"
Dec. 31).
It's a wonderful story. I read it twice
to absorb it. And I will save this issue
for my grandchildren so that they can
read it in the future. Some history!

Thank you. I'm sure a lot of
Detroiters share the same sentiment.

Sonia Pittman
Oak Park

`Peace' Nothing
To Cheer

From the Jewish News account of CBS
correspondent Dan Raviv ("Newsman
Views Mideast Peace," Dec. 31), it
seemed unclear whether the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
should applaud or criticize the peace
process.
Initially, Raviv noted that Israel was
stuck in the mud" with Syria; the
Palestinians may have a state because
Bill Clinton wants it as a "legacy of
his presidency;" peace means Jews will
have to "enjoy Israel in a new way —

"

Arnie Kantor
president,
Committee for the Jewish Idea
Troy

