Just Another Girl On The IRT

Freestyle musings from a pseudo-intellectual hellcat in high heels with Huxtable aspirations in a ghetto fab world. Proudly sponsored by bouts of bitchy mood swings, one too many swigs of Turning Leaf, the letters F & U and the madness that is the Rotten Apple.

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Work in progress. Neurotic. Daydream believer. Bookworm. Addicted to the arts. Stubborn. Spoiled rotten. Lefty in more ways than one. Pop culture whore. Equal opportunity hater. Kid at heart.

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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

A league of her own

Do you know what a steel magnolia is? The dictionary defines the word steel as "very firm, strong, durable" and the word magnolia as "valued for their longevity and exquisite fragrant blooms." This decidedly Southern phrase describes the very essence of strength combined with femininity. A ladylike persona with a backbone as tough as nails and a quality of character you wouldn't expect to find in such an unassuming package.

She is the one who nurtures her children with the values of love, compassion, courage, strength, spirituality, joy, and even sorrow. She instills in them that it isn't unforgivable for a mistake to be made, but it is one if you aren't willing to try. She is a salve for the inevitable wounds but doesn't attempt to shield them from scrapes still to come as one must learn from the bumps, get up and move forward. She teaches them that no dream is out of their reach, under the mantra of: hard work breeds achievement and doesn't go unrewarded.

Suffering in them, reveals their endurance. When the going gets rough, they don't scurry away from trials and tribulations no matter how large or small. And when life's greatest hurdles stare them in the face — death included — they do not crumble under the weight of it all. In a sea of adversity, they are an anchor in the eye of the storm.

They say that behind every strong man lies a strong woman. Coretta Scott King was that kind of woman.

To merely acknowledge her as the merely the widow of the most important civil rights leader in our country's past (and arguably its future) is a disservice to a singular legacy that carried from that chaotic year of 1968. She was the first lady of a movement that opened doors from an entire generation to walk through the front, not the back. A civil rights activist that kept the fight of equality pushing closer to the goal post after the assassination of her husband.

It was Coretta's will that ensured we carried Martin with us, that his memory continued to be spoken of in the present tense. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-violent Social Change was literally created in the family basement. It was Coretta's undaunted efforts to have Martin's birthday made into a national holiday that solidified her status as a heroin her own right. A student of American history would have no reason to suspect that the nation would honor a slain black man with a national holiday. Coretta believed.
And on the eve of Black History Month, Coretta has finally gone home to join her beloved at long last. The chin-held-high grace and rarefied dignity that made her an exemplary example of the fellowship Martin so believed in has sure done him proud. We were lucky to have been in the presence of a Queen fit so perfectly for a King.

Coretta Scott King
April 27, 1927 - January 30, 2006


link | Shot from the lip by TriniPrincess at 11:43 AM |


2 Comments:
Blogger Unknown commented at 2/07/2006 01:02:00 PM~  

What a great tribute. I already miss her presence. What a wonderful woman and icon..

Blogger TriniPrincess commented at 2/07/2006 11:58:00 PM~  

Thanks Tanisha ;-)

And Will, I really didn't think someone could do it, but I read your response *just* as I was packing up to leave and I swear it had me blushing the entire train ride home. Damn you! LMAO

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