P01.V52.I4
ADVISER UPDATE
‘I just never understood ... ’
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FALL 2013
PAGE 10A
DJNF DIRECTOR’S CHAIR
By Linda Shockley
DJNF Deputy Director
yearbook.
The lesson for a high school
freshman: It is sometimes hard
to appreciate greatness even
when you are a witness to it;
some adults don’t appreciate
youth’s ability to reason and care
about the important issues of the
day; and finally, you can’t tell the
complete story if you don’t seek
all sides.
As for Mr. Smith and our school
board, there has still been no
major media acknowledgment of
what they did 44 years ago, but
perhaps that will change in 2014.
Finally, though we sing the
chorus to Stevie Wonder’s 1981
melody now at birthday parties,
here is a stanza of “Happy
Birthday:”
F
ifty years ago in August,
hundreds of thousands
marched on Washington,
D.C., for voting rights and full
employment. Martin Luther
King’s “Dream” speech would
be memorialized much later,
but at the time it was hardly of
interest to the mainstream media
which only considered potential
mayhem — not the march’s
message — as the story.
During some of this summer’s
extensive anniversary coverage,
a commentator pointed out the
technology of the day 50 years
ago was not capable of carrying
Dr. King’s speech or those of the
other speakers to the masses
gathered on the natio