Freedom Day by Kathleen McAnear Smith

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

My father was a quiet, Southern Baptist with a slightly reserved     bent, so I hope you’ll understand that as a child; to see him excited made our family curious to say the least. He was a lawyer so he could see history in everything, but on this day he said it was “an historic day.”

Mom packed a picnic and we headed to the central area of Washington, D.C. Dad told us that Dr Martin Luther King would be 

speaking and we would stay to hear him. Now I was really excited as my dad worked at the Department of Justice and we always had good seats for special events. 

 

I don’t remember the hour we left the picnic but I do remember that as dad had my younger brother on his shoulders and mom held my sister’s hand, I rushed ahead to find a good seat for all of us. 

My dad called out to me “ We won’t be up there today.”

 

“Why not? Don’t you have a reservation? Don’t they know who you are?” We were so proud of our dad working with Robert Kennedy. Surely because of him we would get to sit up close and hear this famous speaker. 

 

At the time we were only moments away from hearing about a dream, a vision of a land promised where children of all colours could play together. We were only an hour or two away from hearing the description of a dream that would inspire us to a new reality of righteousness, boundary lines drawn in justice and a godly freedom. Surely we should be there, somewhere in the front rows. 

 

But dad placed a restraining hand. “No. Not today. There are some people who deserve to be in the front rows for this speech, and we aren’t the ones.”[1]

 

While many people have heard of the I Have a Dream speech as it’s often called, I want to share a few words Dr King wrote for accepting the Nobel Prize for Peace. He spoke about a flight to freedom, a flight where “wounded justice can be lifted from a dust of shame”. “Not everyone is the the well known pilot on this flight. I am always aware of how many people it takes to fly a plane. There is a ground crew as the jet flies to freedom.”[2]

 

Today as the British government, news and various social media talk about the 19^th of July being a Freedom Day, I would like to suggest that as writers we challenge ourselves to a little freedom writing. Could we write to inspire a very needed freedom in our nation? 

Whether or not we don a mask from today onwards, perhaps we could look out for opportunities to encourage courage, grace and understanding for the needs of others. Whether or not we’ve written best sellers or simply our first article for the local news, could we talk about, write about, the real issues for freedom in our communities? Let’s have an historic day. 

Kathleen McAnear Smith has written Beyond Broken Families which is now sold on Amazon. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Policy and a Certificate in Theology/ Chaplaincy but is working on creative ways to listen to Jesus. At the moment she is loving walking in the Lake District. 

 

 

 

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[1] Kathleen Smith, Beyond Broken Families (Destiny Image Europe publisher)

[2] Dr Martin Luther King’s Speech, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize https://youtu.be/5r98tT0j1a0

Thank you to Unsplash for the photo of Dr King