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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2015)
HONORING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Two Big Men, One Giant Moment in History By Renault Catalani I HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF Martin Luther KING, JR. recall the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in our television’s grainy black and white. I remember his eyes. Who doesn’t remember Dr. King’s eyes? In my memory, he’s examining some very important papers over the shoulder of the President of the United States of America, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The President’s likewise skimming those serious docs – our 1964 Civil Rights Act – a chunky pen in hand. I’m 10 years- old and we’re on our couch, near our Penncrest TV. Pop is to my right, silent — exhaust- ed from work. A respectful space separates us. Big brother Robbie’s Renault Catalani slouched on my left, we share a thin film of sweat between his arm and mine. Our parents’ first Ameri- can-born boy Roy sits between Robbie’s muscular thighs. Left and right of Dr. King and President Johnson, in several shades of grey, stand suited men from New Hampshire to Califor- nia, shoulder to shoulder. All white. Even as a fifth grader, I knew that both our kids’ and our parent’s awed generations were absorbing that grand moment. Indeed, back then we believed every household on our street, our immigrant and settled neigh- bors alike, were moved by that monumental black and white moment. We believe it still, today. Fifty years after those most trying days and terrifying nights of American democra- cy, the US Civil Rights Act still lives on. It lives as much as a provision of law pro- duced by the best of pragmatic politics, as it does as an article of faith. American faith. Of course it does. That same grainy scene of Dr. King’s pol- ished obsidian eyes and President Johnson’s determined brows, came back to me some Saturday nights ago. My wife and I were sitting on Timothy Lake’s south shore. If you’ve not been there, Timothy Lake is a clear Cascade reservoir curtained by tall fir, pine, and cedar, shoulder to shoulder a lot like those 1960s US congressmen. But these big elders never let harsh city lights or our urban din get past them. Not a bad thought they allow there. There, in their humbling stillness. On that lake’s edge, everyone’s gazing up at a billion-billion miles of pretty planets and pulsing suns and sparkling stellar mat- ter. Heaven’s enormity packs people’s eyes and ears. That late night, it all so paralyzed my ordinarily-buzzing big city neural net- works that my wife had to elbow me, hard – to remind me to breath. For immigrant community mechanicos See TWO MEN on page 20 WE START OUT THE NEW YEAR WITH A NEW MISSION, SIMILAR NAME, NEW DIRECTION AFRICAN AMERICAN CHAMBER HAS GONE PRIVATE!!! The Skanner News has donated more than half a million dollars in college scholarships We thank you for your support. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland for our annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast Jan 19, 2015 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner January 14, 2015 Matthew Thomas, Chairman Roy Jay, Managing Director Portland – San Francisco, New York, Washington DC 503-244-5794 PLAYING BY A DIFFERENT SET OF RULES. THE TEAM THAT YOU WANT ON YOUR SIDE
