Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Most Segregated Day of the Week

Someone said that Sunday is the most segregated day of the week. I think it was Martin Luther King, Jr., who said that. It was that segregated Monday, however, January 18th, when the King was celebrated in America across the land. He stood up when others simply sat and the silence of friends will be remembered more than the enemy's word, Martin also reminded us. He did. What bothered me most Monday was that at the iconic edifice of Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States of America, at the 10 am Mass that was intended to remember the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., most of the people didn't look like me - an elderly Caucasian male. No, most were African-American worshipers who loved Martin, the martyr who died at 38. He stirred conversations about Selema and segregation, and strikes and more. Martin did. And, he died for speaking up and standing up as others sat and said nothing, or little to support in solidarity the civil rights movement that he ignited in the 60s. That was well before his death in '68 almost a year to the date after his speech on "Beyond Vietnam." After the Mass with presider, Ray Stadmeyer, from On the Rise Bakery in Detroit, the hall was filled with many Blacks, and few Whites. Later, at 12 noon in Oak Park, MI., in Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish/Our Lady of Fatima Church, most of the participants in the Elephants in the Living Room session on Pope Francis' agenda for the global Church, most of the people were White like me, and only a few were Black. A study in dichotomy. Two Catholic churches - one in the urban area of the Motor City, and, the other, a suburban place north of Detroit's boundaries at 8 Mile Road. One fully Black, and, the other, fully White. Go figure. Is Martin correct? Was my experience the most segregated day of the week? Why?

1 comment:

  1. Haven't come far, have we Father Ventline?

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