| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Sunset as seen from Central Park West through Central Park and towards Fifth Avenue. 5:00 PM. Photo: JH. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Monday, January 20, 2014. Cold and mild and sunny over the weekend in New York. The weatherman keeps forecasting much colder weather coming out way. A month beyond the shortest day of the year. I have a friend who hates the winter for the darkness that comes so early – before five in the afternoon at the Winter Solstice. It depresses him. I never thought of it that way but I can see what he means. Ever since we had that conversation I have been more conscious of the changing light and time in our days. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  | |
|
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  | |
|
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| It was cold yesterday late afternoon when I went out on the terrace to see what the street looked like. I’m fascinated with that last of sunset that you see between the buildings to the southwest. I love the emerging city lights buried in the tall black profiles of the apartment buildings along the avenue and beyond. The pink of the sunset almost seems to have set a glow on the roadway below. Each day the light will last a little longer and soon we’ll begin to anticipate the Spring and look for the slightest signs. Some signs will be in that sunset. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  | |
|
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a Federal holiday President Reagan signed into existence thirty years ago on November 2, 1983. There was vocal opposition to the proposal for a Federal holiday when it was first presented in 1979, and a few years passed before it became a reality. The day marks the “official” birthday of Dr. King although his actual birthday was January 15. He was thirty-nine years old when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  | |
|
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
I was in high school in Massachusetts when Martin Luther King came to national attention in what became his campaign for Civil Rights. The America I grew up in had few if any people of color in proximity of the majority of Americans living in small towns and villages. I don’t recall seeing even one person of color in the town where I grew up (which doesn’t mean there wasn’t anyone). There was a black population in nearby Springfield which was a larger city. The only people of color everyone knew were either athletes, actors or entertainers along with writers James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison.
These were very exciting times in retrospect., although very few ever could have imagined that changes in not only laws but consciousness that have steadily taken place over the past half century since that day in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks’ defiance led to a bus boycott that became a symbol of demonstrations and challenges that not only changed the laws but changed American society and culture forever. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had already joined the movement and was to become its spokesman and its symbol. The American people were quite used to segregation and fell into it as if by rote without giving it a thought. Dr. King’s steadfast leadership and public speaking, however, slowly but decisively changed that forever. In his early days where he was already being chased and/or under surveillance by police and other law enforcement, the general population regarded him as an upstart and even a troublemaker. Communist was a label frequently cast upon his reputation, although it wasn’t true. But he was a man who by his nature could seize victory from the jaws of defeat and demonstrate that reality to others. As the protesting grew more and more intense, Dr. King preached non-violence, love and understanding. By the time he made his famous (and last) “I've been to the mountaintop…” speech on April 3, 1968, the public consciousness had begun to change. It reflected the revolutionary atmosphere of the times as the War in Viet Nam had kept escalating while growing less and less popular with the American public. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| This was a movement of many figures, personalities and leaders, many of whom were women. But Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the forefront of leadership with his words, his solemn commitment and his great humanity. Although it is a tribute that he grew to be revered by millions of people of all ethnicities across the world, his presence and persistence showed us all the way to a hope, a dream, for a better life for all. Those hopes, that dream, have yet to be fully realized but its roots are now reality. Two generations of Americans have grown up with a far different attitude and view of Civil Rights for all. I believe it was Dr. King who planted the seeds of the changes that have flourished. He paid for that with his life but what he achieved was for all life forever after. It is impossible not to think that had he lived into middle age he could have accomplished so much more for all of us. Nevertheless, his memory is still powerful enough to inspire and to acknowledge. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Thinking about him last night, I was reminded of Adela Rogers St. John, an entertainment journalist for the Hearst newspapers back with W.R. was still in charge. St. John covered the world of show business as a reporter, a critic and a columnist. She’d grown up in San Francisco in the early part of the 20th century when it was still a (big) town grown out of the oceanside community of Yerba Buena. Her father was a hardscrabble émigré who had followed the Gold Rush to that city by the Bay. Working for Hearst covering the crazy world of movies and theatre, iin the first half of the 20th century, St. John saw it all and wrote about a lot of it. She lived well into her 90s when she announced publicly that she was about to write a memoir. Her third. When asked what more she had to say to the public. Her response was immediate: she wanted to tell the public that "99% of the people are much better than they think they are," and to know it was to encourage it. That was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message, repeated over and over and over, rewarding many of us and changing our world forever. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. |
Contact DPC here. |