"Free at Last!"

A memory of MLK on MLK Day

I was born in the late seventies; my generation was the last to experience childhood without a computer.

We had books. Encyclopedia Britannica. A black and white TV.

And we had tapes. Lots of tapes.

One tape was my favorite: “Sounds of America.”

A collection of sounds, speeches, and songs from our nation’s history.

At just four years old, I’d play it over and over.

This was my TikTok. (Too soon? #RIP and #GoodRiddance!)

My favorite track was Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Now, I was a tiny white boy living in a pretty white city in possibly the whitest state in the country, Oregon. I didn’t know anything about MLK’s cause.

But I felt the power of his words.

I would run up and down the hallway, yelling, “Free at last, free at last, thank GAWD ALMIGHTY, we’re free at last!”

Yes, that kid from the photo above. That’s the one.

“…we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.”

(Boy, it really doesn’t do it justice to quote him in writing with proper punctuation, does it?)

I didn’t learn much about Dr. King’s cause for another decade or so, when we studied about civil rights in high school.

But I didn’t understand it until I came to college at Pepperdine University, and in my second semester, signed up for the English 102 class that best fit my schedule.

Something was different about this class but I didn’t realize it until I showed up on the first day.

THIS English class was all about the Harlem Renaissance.

And my friend Jenny C and I were the only two white kids in the class.

To my memory, this was the first time I was presented with the idea of being “the other.” The first time I read deeply the words of black speakers and artists from that time period, reading not only the words of history, but hearing the words of my peers.

I won’t pretend that I still sit, every day, in that contemplative state, considering the needs of others who look and sound and believe differently than me. Life never stands still.

But I do often come back to that first taste of realizing that many experience the word differently than me, and it’s best that I listen more than I talk.

It’s why I try my best to live by the quote, “Be kind, for everyone you know is privately fighting a mighty battle.”

I’ve come a long way from that simple boy, running the hallway, yelling “free at last!”

And yet, sometimes it feels not far enough.

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Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great week!

Three things to share:

1. Thank you to the many people who read “LA is Burning and I am Inadequate” and texted me on the side. If you haven’t read it, it seems to hit a nerve for anyone who is “unaffected” but struggling to figure out how to help. Or leave a comment on if and how you’re navigating the LA Fires.

2. I am putting on a live stage show on March 23rd in Los Angeles — would love for you to make it. The mailing list is also on Substack: Westside Story Club — a place for stories, comedy, and music. I’ll announce the lineup and tickets soon.

3. I did an open mic last week and riffed this story about playing the Oregon Trial game as a kid:

alecmcnayr

A post shared by @alecmcnayr

Here we go —

Alec