Today Is Martin Luther King Day

If you were not already aware because you went to your mailbox and found nothing, today is a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I know a lot of people were speaking about Dr. King and his accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement.

There have been events all day long, all over the country commemorating Dr. King, and rightfully so. He was a great man who accomplished much before he was taken from us much too soon. 1968 was not a good year in America. His assassination on April 4, 1968 was just the beginning of a horrific year.

I want to focus this post on another Civil Rights leader who was right there with Dr. King. His name was Leon Sullivan. He was a Baptist Minister for the Zion Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Dr. Sullivan took a small, struggling church of sixty people and turned it into a congregation of six thousand! His fiery sermons brought people to hear him as he became known as the "Lion from Zion" and made his congregations one of the largest in the nation by the time he stopped preaching there in 1988. 

Dr. Sullivan died of leukemia April 24, 2001 at the age of 78. The reason I want to make you aware of this inspiring individual is I got to hear him speak for a brief moment following my keynote presentation for the Minneapolis Native American OIC graduation ceremony on October 23, 1998.

Let me set the stage: Jennie Lightfoot was the executive director of the OIC and asked me to give the commencement address that day. I had known Jennie from my days of working for as a trainer for Honeywell several years before that. Jennie knew of my experience living on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the early 1960s when my dad was a teacher and coach in a small town called McLaughlin, South Dakota. In the interviewing process with Jennie, I told her of my experience living in McLaughlin. I mentioned a couple names of athletes my father had taught and coached when we lived on the reservation.

One of those names I mentioned was Willard Male Bear. Jennie giggled and said, "Do you mean Willie?"

I told her we had never referred to him as Willie, but yes, that is probably the same guy! As it turned out, Willie was the same man who used to babysit for us when he was in high school in McLaughlin. I love small world stories like that!

As Dr. Sullivan was escorted into the banquet room towards the head tables, he was asking to sit by the keynote speaker. Dr. Sullivan had recently suffered a stroke and the right side of his body was extremely compromised. He came in with a gentleman supporting his right side and walking with a cane in his left hand. As he sat down next to me, as many victims of strokes will do, he kind of dropped that last foot or so into the chair.

Everybody was making a big deal out of this distinguished older gentleman who was obviously struggling from the effects of his stroke. We sat through lunch and people wanted to meet him and shake his hand. It was fun watching him interact with everyone that came up to the table and greeted him. He was very gracious as his meal was interrupted several times.

Once the program started, I noticed he was scribbling notes with his left hand in the margins on the program. I thought to myself, "This old guy is writing his speech as he sitting here." Little did I know who this "old guy" was and what he was doing.

They had made a temporary, nice, long ramp to get up to the stage for me. I am sure it met ADA Standards. I went up the ramp, with my wireless, lavalier microphone ready to go, and gave about a thirty minute presentation that brought a standing ovation to the banquet hall.

Then, Clyde Bellecourt made me a Sioux Warrior, wrapped me in a blanket and four tribal members sang a traditional song in my honor as they sat around a bass drum beating it rhythmically. It was quite a moment and one I will never forget.

I came down off the stage, and as Dr. Sullivan was being helped up, he winked at me and said, "Let's see if I still have it." 

Dr. Sullivan was standing at the back of the platform and Clyde started to introduce him. As Clyde Bellecourt it is known to do, he can start ranting and no one really knows how long he will go. He started in that day and Dr. Sullivan was getting a little weak kneed waiting for Clyde to finish his introduction. You could hear people at the head tables telling someone to get Dr. Sullivan I chair because no one knew how long Clyde would go and Dr. Sullivan was leaning up against the wall.

No sooner did Dr. Sullivan get seated in the chair when Clyde stopped his tirade, said to the audience, "With that ladies and gentlemen, please let me introduce Dr. Leon Sullivan!" You should have seen the look Dr. Sullivan shot at Clyde. It was precious.

As Dr. Sullivan was helped to the podium, he laid his program on the podium and adjusted his glasses a bit to try and read the scribbling he had put on his program. He was struggling. As he started to speak, something happened I have never witnessed before and will probably never witness again. The spirit literally came into him for about seven or eight minutes and he was whole again!

I have never sat in a black Baptist church listening to a good old-fashioned Baptist preacher preach fire and brimstone. But that day, for a few minutes I got to experience God's presence enter into a rare and committed preacher of the word. I will never forget as he was in full stride, speaking with the spirit moving him and he slammed his right fist on the podium and made a statement that started with tremendous force, "My brother Martin … " He continued for a couple minutes and then just as quickly as the spirit came into him, it left. It was an experience like nothing I have ever seen.

As Dr. Sullivan was helped back to his chair, I leaned over to him and said, "Dr. Sullivan, you've still got it!" I gave him a big smile and patted his shoulder.

Dr. Sullivan smiled back at me and replied, "I just can't keep it very long anymore."

Wow! I will never forget my experience with one of the great Civil Rights leaders of our time who marched along with Dr. King, Ralph Abernathy, Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson and all the rest.

I learned in a hurry, "You can't judge a book by its cover."

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

A Red Letter Day In Minnesota!

Yesterday was truly a Red Letter Day in Minnesota on two fronts! Let me talk about the weather first, which is what people usually talk about when they refer to Minnesota as being so cold and having winters that last eight months!

Let me preface my statement by saying we have had an unusually cold spring with many of the Northern lakes still covered in ice. As of last weekend one of our larger lakes, Mille Lacs, still had as much as twenty inches of ice covering it! As far as I know, much of that ice is still there.  Often times our governor will go to Mille Lacs for the fishing opener, which was last weekend.

Since the lake was covered with ice which much of it ended up in backyards and even destroyed buildings and damaged houses when the ice shifted onto the shore last week, the governor's fishing opener was held on another lake. 

Many of our resorts, boat rentals, bait shops and other fishing-related businesses are hurting because of the extremely cold weather and lack of fishing-related revenue. The fishing opener in Minnesota is a big deal for many people in this state, and a tremendous amount of money changes hands. It gets the economy moving in many parts of the state after our famous long winters.

Even up to a week ago we had snowfall here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Now, here is where it starts to get weird. Yesterday, the temperature in Minneapolis was 98°! That set a record for the hottest May fourteenth on record! Today it is only supposed to get up into the 80s. Now, they are telling us we could see more snow again by the end of the week or early next week. There is really something going on with climate change!

Minnesota is not the only area of the country seeing extreme weather patterns that are hard to explain. I am not looking forward to what the summer will bring weather-wise throughout the country. From last year's drought through the Plains states to record rainfalls in the East, with hurricanes is far north as Maine to severe drought through the Central Valley of California, we could be in for another strange summer.

Now, for the other exciting event from yesterday, let me spend a little time addressing groundbreaking, civil rights legislation that was signed into law by our Governor, Mark Dayton.  If you have not already heard, Minnesota became the twelfth state to legalize and put into law same-sex marriage!

I am very excited to see our legislature and governor make it legal for two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together as a couple, and just happen to be of the same gender to know they can be legally married as of August first! This is a huge step forward for the civil rights of the LGBT community! 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, as well as women. It ended unequal application for voter registration, racial segregation in schools, the workplace and public accommodations.

It was the first legislation of its kind and opened the door for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was signed into law July 26, 1990.

Granted, the last two laws I mentioned were national laws, and Minnesota's same-sex marriage law is just a state law, but they are all steppingstones to get where we are today and hopefully where we are going in the future.

The Constitution begins with, "We the people ... " which I believe means everyone. It is an ever-changing document as testimony to all of the amendments written since the original document. Remember, it was only 1920 when women were given the right to vote. All of these types of issues take time for acceptance by the entire population. But can anyone imagine today women not having the right to vote?

The Constitution also reads, "All men are created equal ... " First of all, we are not all men. Secondly, as we all know, we are not all equal. That is true on many levels, and is material for another post.

I know I have written another long post. However, I believe it is warranted since yesterday was a very eventful day.

As always, I encourage your comments.

Later,

Mike

Help Me Celebrate Ed Roberts

If you know me, or have read my book, you know I went to the University of California at Berkeley in 1974 through June 1975. It was not a long time, but my time in Berkeley changed my life. The week between Christmas and New Year's 1973, my dad flew with me to Oakland where we were met by the Physically Disabled Student Program's van (PDSP). the van already had two riders. They were Hale Zukas and Ed Roberts.

They were both actively involved in the Independent Living Movement on and around the  campus. I just read an article about Hale who is still active in the movement today.

However, we lost Ed in 1995. Ed Roberts was literally the first person I met when I moved to Berkeley. Little did I know what a huge impact he would have on mentoring me and becoming an international advocate for civil rights for people with disabilities. There is a nice piece on Ed's contribution to the movement on the California.gov's website. You may read it by clicking here. There is even a fully accessible building located in Berkeley called the Ed Roberts Campus which is home to several disability-oriented, non-profit organizations. You may learn more about it at their website by clicking here.

Ed and I became fast friends and spent a lot of time together watching sporting events including several baseball games, football games and the 1975 USA–USSR track meet. I talk about Ed and his influence on me in my book I Still Believe In Tomorrow and how much our friendship meant to me.

The reason the California Department of Rehabilitation is celebrating is it is its 50th Anniversary and they are making a list of their fifty most notable people in their history. Guess who the number one person on that list is?

When Ed first applied to go to school at Cal, he was denied entrance because he he did not get a high school diploma. He did not receive a diploma because he failed to take and pass two classes, physical education and driver's training. Through his persistence of never backing down or allowing the system to say no, he eventually earned an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley. He became the first student with a severe disability to ever be admitted and graduate from the University California at Berkeley! He certainly was an amazing, inspirational person!

Once Ed got in, that opened the doors to more students. At the time, I did not realize when I went out there the residence program I lived in the first year was only a few years old. Had I known that, now I wonder if I would have even gone. I tell people the second best thing I ever did was going to Berkeley. The inevitable question comes back then, "What was the first?" 

My response is always, "Coming back to Minnesota." 

Berkeley was a great place to go to school with an ever-expanding accessible campus, but I got homesick and came back to Minnesota where I eventually earned my bachelors degree in School and Community Health Education. 

I want to close this post after telling you one more Ed Roberts story. Besides helping to coordinate PDSP, form the first Center for Independent Living, of which there are about six hundred of them now around the country, he was also instrumental in forming the World Institute on Disability (WID). Its work is now reaching worldwide communities. Shortly after I left Berkeley, Governor Jerry Brown named Ed to head California's Department of Rehabilitation. I have always found great irony in the fact the department that once refused to help pay for his college education was later being run by him.

Here is a picture of Governor Brown making the appointment:

Click on the image to make it larger:

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike