IN HONOR OF MLK DAY 2015

THE WEIGHT OF IT
An innocent child asks:
Who was Martin Luther King?
Dr. King was a great man.
Why?
He was a man of peace.
Why?
Dr. King was a man of peace at a time when others used violence against –
Who?
When others used laws against –
How?
When some people treated others as less than –
When? But...not anymore, right?
And so the questions flow, placidly, innocently.
And so the answers come haltingly, in a great damaging rush downstream,
Brackish,
Into the mouth of the river,
Where fresh and salt water meet,
Settling quietly into the psyche of the American child,
Innocence weighted down,
Down into the drowning sea.

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Composed by Bennett Windheim for the
Boston Children's Chorus' Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute Concert
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory
Boston, MA
1/19/15