OtherThanThat

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the United States. Until somewhat recently it was merely a day on the calendar and not really acknowledged as a serious holiday in this country.
Something I always found to be rather insulting considering the incredible role that Dr. King played in helping this country make serious strides on the issue of civil rights.
Though he was assassinated just before I was born, his words and speeches have always played an important role in my life.

Every year the first thing I do on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is go online and listen to the entire 16 1/2 minute version of his momentous speech in Washington, DC.
I’ve posted that video on this site already as part of a post I did on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December.
This year my experience of MLK Day was a bit different. I awoke to a sky filled with dark clouds dripping with rain. I walked my dog. Then I sat down to watch the video as I drank my morning coffee.
Upon arriving at the Seesmic office, I decided I wanted to see what others in the community might think on this day. So I created this video post:

Immediately after that post, I put up this video:

Within minutes, as always, the Seesmic community spoke up and began a lovely conversation that wove throughout our day.
It ended up being the featured conversation on Seesmic that day and so was highlighted in that day’s episode of Seesmix. And here’s how that looked:

My takeaway – we all desperately seek heroes and in today’s always-on-hyper-connected world, sadly it has become even more challenging to find the strong, clear voices who can cut through the cacophony and chaos to provide that simple yet powerful perspective to guide us forward.
As someone who plays a part in helping increase the number of voices bellowing from the digital mountain tops, I can only hope that I can also help ensure that in some way we try and strive for something more than merely stroking our own egos with the rumblings of our own voices.
Perhaps in this maelstrom of media it is more important now to be still and silent in order to hear the truth that lies somewhere in between.