Teresa’s HUM 455 Journal

  Our first class started the day after the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings assassination and Saul talked a little about that as he walked us through the syllabus and talked about what we could expect from the class. Saul told us that he was at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963, when King delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech."

Saul said that he was at the other end of the Reflecting Pool and that it was hard to hear every word of the speech because of the size of the crowd, but he said, everytime King said "I have a dream…" it seemed like a jolt of electricity when through the entire crowd.  When Saul told us this, I felt like I was being touched by that same electricity, coming through Saul after all those years. I wonder if other people in the class felt the same thing?

All week I’ve thought about the fact that I’ve never met anyone who was actually, physically present at that march and heard that speech with their very own ears. Not through television. Not through film clips. They were there. They made the effort to be at the march - for the cause of not because they new history was going to be made that day. They heard the speech with their very own ears.

I’ve been thinking this week how that kind of makes Saul unique…that maybe he should record his story of that day at Story Corps so his experience isn’t lost and so that maybe my grand-daughter might be touched by a bit of the electricity that Martin Luther King sent radiating through that massive crowd that day.

 …Non Violent Resistance?

It’s a class that’s offered through Antioch University McGregor’s Under Graduate Studies Program that (from the course catalog) examines 20th century cases in which non-violent resistance has been used to overcome oppression throughout the world. Students study examples from Russia, India, Poland, Germany, Denmark, the U.S., South Africa, the Philippines, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Throughout the quarter the class monitors current anti-war resistance in the U.S. and critically reflects on its means and ends.

One of our assignments is to keep a weekly journal of our thoughts and reactions to what we are learning and things we find that relate to the class.

This is mine.