 Hey, welcome. Welcome to the state of the state of Hawaii on the Think Tech Hawaii platform. I'm your host Stephanie Stoll-Dalton. Joining me today is Dr. Wesley Boykin, who will be a guest to talk from Global Vision Connections, and we will be talking about the feature of Dr. Martin Luther King's Jr.'s birthday. And this is a national holiday in our state and nationally in the country, and we'll be talking about Dr. King's accomplishments and influence on Americans' way of living and governing in a democracy. Hello, huh, Wesley? Good to see you, Dr. Boykin. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. And you are from Global Vision Connections, and do you want to say a few words about what is that organization's purpose and goal? Organization, Global Vision is a program of international cultural interaction with people in the United States and across the world. Particularly, we visit and convene and build relationships with individuals and groups of individuals in Africa, South America, as well as Asia. And it's all about people connecting with people to build a better space, a better life in which we live ourselves, but also building bridges with people that across the world that can help us change lives of children and adults. Well, today we celebrate someone who did that to a considerable extent and was unfortunately cut short from doing all he could do. But he was a remarkable American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a critical influence for his time. And in fact, his time being so short on Earth was remarkable portfolio of work. And so we'll be talking more about that today and what it means nationally and globally. He was, as everybody may know, I was reminded about his youth when Wesley sent me some information that he was assassinated at age 39. And I really and truly was astounded at that. So that's much younger than John F Kennedy for any of you that were around at that time as well. And of course, he was considerably younger, maybe about five or six years younger than JFK. So for so short a life, his accomplishments and influence were considerable. So let's talk about that, Wesley. And as you've noted with your organization, Global Vision Connections, you do travel the world and learn of other points of view on what's important about America and what is in its role and influence for the world. Would you talk to us a little bit about what that picture is out there and how Martin Luther King fits into it in places or not other places? It is amazing that you can go places on this Earth and you would think that our lives and our living is so disconnected that people would not necessarily know about a lot of the history and the living in the United States. But no matter where you go, there are certain individuals living and dead that people are aware of. And that's not Martin Luther King as one of those. Now, on the other hand, it might be Michael Jordan and it might be Beyonce and Madonna, but they all know Martin Luther King because unfortunately, so many places in the world have experienced civil disorder, a social ethnic as well as religious injustices. So people study these situations across the globe in order to help them come up with viable solutions much quicker than we did in the United States. South Africa is one. We're experiencing some of the similar problems right now in the Baltic states. I recently traveled there and the fear is extremely thick with what's going on with the Russian war. And that may be politically correct to call it such, but realistically, that's how many people see it, the Russian war. And you have people who are ready to have an exit plan in case their country is next. So when you start thinking about leaderships, when it is leadership specifically born to correct wrongdoing and injustices that are supported nationally, you have, people have a tendency to learn, and especially with the use of the internet, Martin Luther King is always front and center in that learning. Well, what is it that they are, what are they admiring him for particularly in these other countries or any specific country, South Africa or in the Baltics? What do they see in his work that is important for them? One commonality that everyone looks at a leader is, first of all, bravery, courage. And once you identify someone or you develop it in someone, you want them to be able to have a mastery of the language, to be able to speak for those who are voiceless. So a powerful language and an understanding of the conditions that led to where we are now. And then those two points of knowledge along with having followers and being able to be followers and identify the leaders, help you right a grave wrong by developing a best course of action, a plan of action that will help you move forward because without that coverage, without that strategic sound plan, it would be easy to be cut down and you stop getting your tracks. And with South Africa, the first time that I visit there, it was the year that Nelson Mandela was set free from prison after years and years of being in prison. And the individuals that I met there and I met many and talked with many, they were not aware in the 70s and the early 80s of what went on in the United States with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement because they had a TV tax and they could barely afford to eat. So they did not have the knowledge and awareness of what went on. But that's a prime example of it wasn't necessarily the Civil Rights Movement in America and Martin Luther King in America that led them to build courage. It shows that there is something innate in all people no matter where they are to understand the difference between right and wrong, the difference between having a voice and silence and know the ability and the capacity to know when to use your voice and when to be silent and when to recognize when silence and others is betrayal of that social justice movement. Well, to understand that in the applications that he had to make of his ideas, his theories, and his inspirations and dreams for all of us, can you talk a little bit about how he got started? Was it the pastor's ship in his father's, he followed his father into the pastor's ship as a southern minister, correct? Where did he go? How did he move from that? If you could just point out some of those we call stepping stones or milestones for him. My experience in the world and in life is in that success and achievement is a combination of nurturing, which is what we see by who his father was, who his mother was, and who his father-in-law and those before them were. They build a substance of character within you, but also just a timing of it all. The recognition from an early age that there is a need in my world and that I have been nurturing, I've been nurturing to develop skills that I'm now at an age that I can see may not exist to the extent it need to be and those around me, those who have trained me, you have a sense of where you are going and you also have a strange undying feeling about what it is within me that I can do to resolve all of this. There's that real simple notion that we can never forget. If not now, when, if not me, who? That bubbles up at certain points and people lies when the conditions are right and for Martin Luther King, he was nurturing, but there was also something innate in him, but the nurturing helped him to realize that and when the need first arose, he was only 25, I think 25 and a half years old with the Montgomery Boycott. That's one of his more famous speeches and we listen to it now these many decades later and we see 18-year-olds, 20-year-olds, 25-year-olds. We all are at a point where we see our junior staff coming on board and we know where we might want them to be, but at age 25 and I have, Martin Luther King made one of the greatest speeches that this country had ever heard, especially from someone so young and it led to the country. It was the beginning of a change that this country had held on to for over 400 years. That speech began a change, a metamorphosis in this country that spread all over the world and so there was a combination of nurturing, there was a combination of what was innate in him and also most importantly the conditions were right and we can never forget and all young people listen to this can never forget that sometimes you have to ask those questions if not me who and if not now when and that's that led to the birth of the individual leader that we are now celebrating. Well he also brought that inspiration to very humble audiences. We remember him at the Lincoln Memorial with I have a dream speech in 1963 and the bounty of that and the beauty of that, but he was going, when he went to Atlanta, who was he speaking to? No, when you say when he went to Atlanta, when he left Washington on the I have a dream speech, he did many, many, many more books, but he wrote many books, he did many speeches after that, but one speech that particularly is meaningful to me and is very relevant today for me is his remain awake speech. That was done also in Washington DC. It was presented on March 31st, 1968. Now 1968, March 31st, there are people, historians, particularly in activists that are doing the countdown. That was four days before his death and he recounted so much of where we are in this country. He recounted the successes that we have achieved had achieved in the recent years like the Civil Rights Act, but he also acknowledged that there are many people, not just those whom he was leading, those who may not have had his nurturing individuals who were minorities, but also those who were leaders and those who were, could be allies in the movement, but he wanted them to know that falling asleep in the time of social injustice and so much inequality in this country isn't good and it isn't the legacy that anyone will want to leave for their own children because as we know now history has shown us, there were a lot of people who were actively and complicit in what happened, but there were a lot of people on the side to get rid of it, to change this country and so there were people that were very intelligent, very credentialed and there were people that on the other side who were not, but through it all on both sides, there were people who, you know, fought to change or who were part of the change and that to me was the message throughout all his speeches and his audience was mostly supporters, the active participant audience in the meetings, in the presentations were supporters because remember we were still a racially segregated country, so there wouldn't have been rooms and rooms full feel with European Americans, the doors to a lot of the social institutions were not open, so he made the best in the time, in the period with, with, with, with, with just fine colors, he made the best of everything and it changed this country, it changed the world and he thought by himself, well how is it all about him, it's about the movement. Well and then he went to, for instance, he, I think I saw that he gave the, I've been to the mountaintop speech or that's an excerpt from the speech or a reference to that speech to sanitation, striking sanitation workers and as you say, there, there were certain people who could get those jobs and not get those jobs and so when he was giving these speeches his, his rhetoric and his lofty ideas and ideals were in full display and to, you know, incite people to thinking in the ways you just described about how, how we can move beyond this and how he, you could face up to the most difficult challenges, really barriers that were so dug in and to, and then to bring to those people also these, these ideas that were fairly unfamiliar, wouldn't you say, the, the non-violence, civil disobedience maybe had taken, had its place but non-violence, objecting through non, non-violence, do you think that, can you talk a little bit about the quality of that notion and bringing it to the people, to be their sword in their shield, one of non-violence? No, no, no, that's where a lot of his, his training, he had a PhD, we forget, I guess, because it's so popular now in many churches should be quote-unquote reverend doctor but Martin Luther King really had an earned PhD from Boston University so he was a scholar, he was a thinker and he was extremely learned and he studied the ways of social justice and injustice in inequality and equality across the earth. God, Gandhi led the entire movement in India with non-violence. Martin Luther King was aware and has studied that and we can go back a few thousand years earlier, Jesus, whole movement was non-violent so Martin Luther King, remember, had degrees in divinity. He had the pastorial background and experience from that he was nurtured in so it's not far fetched for him to come up with that and the other leaders in the NAACP, the SCLC and the entire allied community to the civil rights movement, they were, they have seen what happens in the United States with violence. They knew that this group of people, however large it may have been, could not fight off the KKK, Jim Crow, Shouse, Southerners, nor any Coast Guard and all of the governors, remember, were European American so they, any call could be attacked by police or armed services with dogs, guns, water and they were many, many and bombs, remember, we still had the KKK so he knew that the numbers, no matter what the beliefs and no matter what the Bible, no matter what right and wrong says, he knew he could not fight that so let's try something new. If not this, another question, then what? To cannot continue doing the same thing over and over and we were losing lives at the hands of people in any society were labeled as evil regardless of whether it was the law or not so we had to try, and I'm including myself in it, was a little boy, not an active participant but as a little boy and as a grown man I can think back on those expressions and questions I had to my grandmother and my mother and my teachers so I was part of that we and and so I'm glad that they were able to withstand that I don't know if at any other point in American history that such a movement could have been successful with no retaliation and also I want to add prior to civil work the civil that I have a dream speech in 1963 the civil rights sit in movement started that started I might be a little bit off of my math but I think it was even I think it was 1961 at North Carolina anti-state university at the Woodworth Woodcoe the entire world followed in on the sit-in movement which was totally non-violent and the horrors that those college students 17 years old was the youngest of the four of what they experienced but each day it grew and what fertile ground he had in a Christian nation that he was there to animate and renew Christ's message and model so I'm so glad you brought that part of it up yes the gondi inspiration too but the fact that we are so-called Christian nation and it's Martin Luther King that that really reanimated you know Christ in in that nonviolent movement I hadn't hooked the two together but if that makes sense to you then I'm saying that I thank you for bringing that to our attention I I'm I'm just yeah and so I'm overwhelmed by the gigantic ideas and work that he he had I mean clearly inspired but do you think that this is what led to his Nobel Prize what he did receive the Nobel Prize and he he did that based on a book or how do you happen to know if what were the features that the Nobel Prize committee valued in his work I have not read specifically the justification and the rationale behind the nomination and the win but I do know and remember that it was the totality of all that he had done this and it encompasses a lot of what we've said here the bravery the coverage the knowledge the idea that someone so young would have the courage and the voice and the support to challenge one of the most powerful countries on earth of all time yes that says a lot and remember it started with the Montgomery boys boycott with a lady who was tired she didn't want to give her seat up she was tired and a feet were and he was called in he was recruited because everyone recognized his abilities to lead and they knew that it just can't stop with this bus boycott that we were going to play in and we all know that was Rosa Parks so so it was the totality of all that was happening and when we stop and remember the most powerful country on earth and perhaps of all times and he and then civil rights movement challenged that at 25 and a half years old so so Wesley where are we now um has that let's go I'm asking about his influence which is just undeniable certainly during his time and and afterwards but now that we're moving on into the 21st century where do you see the influence and impact of his teachings and lessons and speeches where do you where do you think we are now I am and a living example I'm a living product of the civil rights movement and the successes I'm not alone there are many of us and it's not just black it's women you it's Latinos Asians all minority groups all groups that have been deprived of something in respect to equality in this country are living proof of the successes but we also have a movement in this country that tells us that there are points in the history of this country that was better there are popular acronyms and people of all places of strength and power and leadership in this country is saying that we should go back and there are chase law now that's reversing some of those games so that's why that speech four days before he died that was about remaining awake it's most important to me because unfortunately many of us are forgetting and because laws are passed by man and sometimes of um hailed up by courts and courts are people and laws the men making them are people but politics play into it so where we are now is that we must at all costs remain awake where we are now is that at all costs we must remain a strong community who care about this country and other people in other countries everybody in it now at the I think one way to to remind ourselves is to visit the Martin Luther King jr memorial in Washington DC which is situated near FDR's memorial on on the tidal basin which is down where the Jefferson Memorial is and I just wanted to share with you to see if this in any way reflects what we've been talking about today because when I go to that memorial I looked at it for a long time and frankly didn't understand it because there is the man who I had I recognized from seeing him on television and uh there he's standing with two big hunks of uh of of a stone behind him and and each time I went I kept looking at that and thinking now why are those stones back there and why is he pulled out in front of it and then why are the insides smooth and cut sharply from which would show how he moved out from that stone is this an artistic uh technique that they're trying to to display and then finally finally no it's that he actually he came to the mountain and he actually moved out of the mountain moved the mountain and I don't know I can't recall if anybody's saying anything about that there but I believe it's important that there be if you agree with me I think that that ought to be written uh large so people can understand that what he brought forth was was against all all all kinds of plot he moved the mountains mountains made way and sometimes when you have an earthquake mountains can shift back we must remain awake oh that's a very good finishing up point Wesley yes no I didn't take it there I was just grateful to see that it had that message had been put in stone uh that he had moved mountains which we're not supposed to be able to do but with his rhetoric and with his his inspiration um and message uh we we did have that happen but we must remain vigilant and work with it so I think um it was a sad loss to have uh Martin Luther King jr um joined the early levers from the planet before he had his full life there but if we think about it there are others who bring to that and build on his shoulders and and like yourself and the way you're living your life and the way we're revering and uh trying to reflect of those values in in the face of whatever because nothing can be harder than what he did which was move mountains so we can continue to work to move the beauty of all that is that mountains of people that's what had to be moved and it's so relevant to almost all religion moving mountains and you're so true because attitudes and values the structural mentality of folks is very very hard to change and then when it does change it's in terms of tectonic plate rate in other words it's very strong very deep and very slow so we have to realize the world world and the universe that we're in well I think that this has been enormously interesting um and Wesley is there anything else you'd like to say about uh this this man uh who brought so much to our our world and made us better for um and hopefully will be a seed for future blossoming of his notions just that in this week this month next month all months we just have to live our best lives with each other not separately we must be able to look at we must love and look at other people children as if we are looking at our own because they are our children and that is across all ethnic religious and social classes in America and if we can do that to ourselves then we can be more sincere when we reach out to help other people because we will feel their pain equally as we feel our own exactly thank you Wesley for being a guest today on Think Tech Hawaii and on this show the state of the state of Hawaii and um I thank you for taking the time to um share with us your notions and on your thoughts and your knowledge of the work that this man has done for us um will this show will be on in another two weeks please join us and uh mahalo viewers and thank you so much and aloha in the new year to you thank you so much thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram and linked in and donate to us at thinktech hawaii dot com mahalo