On Monday night, Meloday James saw “King in the Wilderness.”
It was Martin Luther King Day, and the Westport Country Playhouse showed the documentary produced by Westport author/playwright/professor Trey Ellis.
The film portrayed a side of the civil rights icon and Nobel Peace Prize winner seldom discussed today: a conflicted leader, who at the time of his death was assailed by critics on both the left and right.
Melody — a 1964 Staples High School graduate — was deeply moved.
It resonated personally: She saw footage of the violent 1966 demonstrations in Chicago and Cicero, Illinois, for fair housing.
Melody arrived to start as a community organizer for JOIN Community Union in Uptown that same day.
“Some of us went to the demo,” she recalls.
“They threw cherry bombs at us. There were screaming, violent white people –much as we witnessed in Washington on January 6, 2021 — full of hatred. It was terrifying!”
That reminded her, in turn, of earlier activism, when she was still a Staples student. Her class raised funds for the World Health Organization.
At the UN (from left): Pete Seidman, Carole Seligman, Joy Wassell, Deb Begley, the head of the WHO, Tim Honey, Tom Dublin, Melody James, Katie Burnham, Dick Sugarman.
A few hours before watching “King in the Wilderness,” President Trump was inaugurated.
One of his first acts was to begin the process to withdraw the United States from the WHO.
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Now I’m partial to my class (1966) and of course there’s been a LOT of classes since then. Yet, there’s a lot to be said for the class of 1964 as the quintessential Staples class of the 1960s.
Values, too.
Phenomenal individuals coming out of Staples from the 1961, 62, 63, 64, 65 and 66 graduation classes!
Thank you DAN WOOG for listening! It’s a long haul. MLK’s words, as renewed in the film keep resonating. “.., if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; …keep moving forward.” SOME OF US ARE GONE. Some feel like we are crawling these days. Appalled that in the same moment he mentions–and uses– MLK, he and his followers vilify the message of the Bishop whom delivered a message of compassion, pointedly, with honesty, begging for him to extend MERCY.
I am Class of 1958. I mention that because…well I am not sure why except that I was part of a group of young women in 1963 who attempted to walk and do what we could and have continued to walk, speak out, do whatever we could. I feel that under the current administration steps backward are being taken and they are not baby steps. The feel and sound to me as if they are sending us years or even decades backwards. I am enjoying seeing familiar names of those in the picture. Carry on. You are needed.
This like so many 06880 retrospectives is a nice trip down Memory Lane. As a proud Westport youngster I knew and looked up to most if not all of the Staples ‘64 students in this picture. I also remember reading with pride in my Staples classes about how the US inspired, led and bankrolled the formation of the WHO, the UN and the rebuilding of decimated countries primarily in Europe and Asia after WWII through initiatives such as the Marshall Plan. That’s why I was so disappointed that the WHO and the UN did not support the US when it requested assistance in working with the Chinese government to determine the true origins of Covid. I was also disappointed when Governor Cuomo rebuffed direct assistance from the federal government because he was angling for the upper hand politically against Trump. Perhaps if they had buried their differences and focused on the problem Covid deaths in the US might not have exceeded 1 million. The Chinese government stood by with its hands in its pockets. They gave Trump an excuse to withdraw from further support of the WHO. Why would you bite the hand that rescued you from Axis obliteration and has fed you so generously for 80 years?