March on Washington, 50 and counting

RantWoman has been trying for a few days to corral some reflections about the 50th Anniversary of the famous March on Washington where Martin Luther King  delivered his I have a dream speech.

For visuals of the original March, RantWoman thinks one could do worse than this wonderful Cosby show episode.
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-cosby-show/the-march-6849/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0547087/

Alas, at this point, RantWoman is stuck on some personal family reflections. A RantWoman eye, fog and blur snapshot of the March on Washington for Jobs Peace and Freedom


Look world, if you are not interested in wandering through RantWoman's mental attic and psychic amusement park, please feel free to look for much better quality reflections on this year's march and themes, you could do a lot worse than the hashtag #realizethedream.
Here for instance is an item with multiple further links by Martin Luther King speechwriter Vincent Harding.
http://www.afsc.org/friends/realizing-dream-conversation-vincent-harding


If you linger, thank you for your attention.

1963 March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, Freedom
The Rant Family lived in Gunnison CO. RantDad was a college music professor. RantWoman was a toddler, probably still in diapers. RantBrother was an even more toddly toddler Little Sister was not on the scene yet.. The RantFamily was nowhere near getting our first television; RantWoman will ask RantMom whether she remembers ANYTHING from media about the March; RantWoman suspects not, although "Hello Americans, this is Paul Harvey" looms as a possibility..

RantWoman either just had or was about to have her first eye surgery. RantWoman would get her first pair of glasses on Halloween; RantMom says the surgery alone did not seem to make much difference but once RantWoman got glasses, RantWoman was so taken that RantMom would have to pry the glasses off RantWoman's face for things like naps.


1973 A 10-year anniversary march?
RantWoman has NO idea whether there was a 10-year anniversary march. The RantFamily lived in MT. By then the RantFamily had progressed to our second or third television, and maybe even a color one.
RantWoman spent the summer babysitting for a Future Broadcaster who was the exact same age--to the day--as Little Sister. RantWoman thinks the TV at Future Broadcaster's house was color. It was the summer of the Watergate hearings. MAJOR bordom factor that even color TV could not improve. Future Broadcaster spent the summer staging gameshows. Seventh Grade loomed on the horizon for RantWoman.


1983 20th anniversary, March for Jobs, Peace Freedom
http://www.irehr.org/about-irehr/irehr-impact/itemlist/tag/March%20on%20Washington%20for%20Jobs,%20Peace%20and%20Freedom
RantWoman was living in our nation's capital, "selling the nuclear freeze door to door" for a now long-defunct organization with a proud history called SANE, exploring her visions of social betterment, having inner and out dialogues about feminism, racism, and more forms of deep peacemaking than lobbying against the MX missile.

Somewhere over the summer RantWoman signed up to volunteer for something at the 20th Anniversary March. RantWoman remembers that the day of the March was hot and steamy as our nation's capital all too often is. RantWoman remembers helping instruct charter bus drivers about where to park in some park on the S side of the Potomac about midway down the Mall. RantWoman remembers that protest garb was WAY less Sunday best that the pictures RantWoman has seen of the original march. RantWoman has NO memory of hearing any speeches. RantWoman has a yellow and blue T-shirt in her moldering collection of protest T-shirts from the March. Somehow RantWoman still finds it inspiring to have the T-shirt.


2013 50th Anniversary March for Jobs, Peace, Freedom.
Hey WAIT A MINUTE! Where did those 30 years go? Never mind.

RantWoman's preferred media streem will be Twitter, especially if her Android tablet of experimentation and exasperation decides to work properly.

RantWoman now lives in Seattle, Martin Luther King County, just off Martin Luther King Way S, formerly known as Empire Way S. RantWoman is leaving further research and free association about the significance of said name changes to her readers.
RantWoman keeps the spirit of the march alive, among other ways,...talking with RantMom about the Bus, #kcmetrobus. RantMom moved to Seattle and decided urban traffic would be TOO MUCH and quit driving. RantMom sometimes does not realize that African Americans of her age probably still remember segregation and RantMom is less suave about negotiating the world of the "courtesy section" than RantWoman would wish anyway. Can readers imagine the opportunities for, um, dialogue?

Seventh grade looms on the horizon--for Irrepressible Nephew. RantWoman dabbled in reflections on feminism and racism and then got distracted by the tale of RantWoman's first and possibly last effort to take Irrepressible Nephew to any kind of march. Just when Irrepressible Nephew was at a size where Wonder Auntie could still carry him at least a few feet,

it came to be time for Seattle's annual Martin Luther King Day march. Irrepressible Nephew had a friend, the daughter of one of Little Sister's co-workers. Friend, her mother, and her grandmother agreed to meet RantWoman and Irrepressible Nephew at the start of the march. Irrepressible Nephew was decidedly unimpressed; RantWoman quickly realized it would have been better to prep the kid at least a little first. The march set out. Irrepressible Nephew quickly started making bored noises. Walk a few feet with friend and her entourage. More bored noises. And so on for several blocks.

Finally, the march was about to crest the final hill where Irrepressible Nephew had a sense of being able easily to walk home. Irrepressible Nephew announced he would go no further. He wanted to go home and watch Kim Possible. He laid down on the sidewalk and WOULD NOT MOVE. That is Irrepressible Nephew staged a sit-down strike to get out of a march commemorating the birth of a famous African American civil rights leader and organizer of sit-ins in order to...go home and watch a TV show about a female superhero. It was all RantWoman could do to maintain some kind of Sensible Auntie visage and avoid cracking up as we headed back to Irrepressible Nephew's house.

RantWoman missed last week's Seattle commemorative march. It was not because RantWoman went to #hempfest But RantWoman presents the endpoint of the march.

RantWoman would LIKE to go look for some meaningful art verbiage because RantWoman would really like to understand why a great civil rights leader with a truly prophetic voice got memorialized in Seattle with something that looks to RantWoman like the aliens have landed.

Seattle Martin Luther King Memorial monument

A search string for some videos off historylink

http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-king-jr/videos#condoleeza-rice-remembers-mlk

in honor of RantWoman's fascination with Condolezza Rice.