We introduce to you our marvelous Team who adds quality and expertise to Women of Courage.
AdlandPro's very own Women of Courage:
Carla Cash
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/245569/default.aspx
Pauline Raina http://community.adlandpro.com/go/301079/default.aspx
Branka Babic http://community.adlandpro.com/go/BrankaBabic/default.aspx
Our very own Man of Courage
Georgios Paraskevopoulos http://community.adlandpro.com/go/Genesis/default.aspx
Our Sweethearts of Courage
Shirley Caron http://community.adlandpro.com/go/scaronpoet2005/default.aspx
Michael Caron http://community.adlandpro.com/go/192260/default.aspx
As the United States, and actually the World, puts this day aside to celebrate the life of one of the greatest heroes ever known to mankind, what better person for Women of Courage to feature than the Woman that stood beside him...... The very woman that could have said..... stop! I am suffering too much! But instead, sharing his dream, gave her husband to us, in the end paying the ultimate price. What greater love than this? What greater gift than this?
I present to you.....
Coretta Scott King
April 27, 1927 - January 30, 2006
We gazed on this regal lady after her husband was assassinated. I looked at her with admiration. What a heroine! There she was standing straight and tall at her husband's funeral. Yet.... did we notice her broken heart? Did we notice her grief? The eyes are the windows to the soul, and it was whenever we caught a glimpse of her eyes through the camera lens, that we saw her true sadness.
What had Coretta Scott King really gone through as her husband fought for the rights of his people, as he fought for his dream? Actually it was her dream too. Yet, when we saw a man of courage, when we saw a great man never wavering in the fight for freedom, in the fight of equal rights for his people, Coretta Scott King, saw the young man that she once promised to cherish and love. She saw an ordinary man. She saw her husband.
How we take for granted the humanity of such people, of our heroes. Because to us they become super heroes and we so much depend on them. Yet our heroes are people just like you and me. They hurt just like we do. I think of the hurt and inner trauma she must have experienced as her husband was attacked, beaten, imprisoned, and so much more time, after time, after time. Yet, she knew he had a job to do and this was no ordinary job. His job was to free humanity. No, that was not a typographical error, or an error in thought or opinion, for by freeing a certain portion of humanity, he freed all of humanity. Yet she never wavered in her support. She was that quiet still voice that said.... "Go on. I love you." Martin Luther King once wrote this of his wife: "I am indebted to my wife Coretta, without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor work would bring fulfilment. She has given me words of consolation when I needed them and a well-ordered home where Christian love is a reality."
I often wondered if he talked about his dream while they were dating. I often wondered if she knew that one day she would share her husband with the world. Yet, how hard it must have been when reality struck. When people didn't say, "Thank you Dr. King!" but instead attacked him verbally, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Did her grief lessen any when honored after his death? When we set aside a special day to honor her husband? Or did she think... "Why, why didn't you tell him how much you loved him when he was alive." Maybe all this could have been avoided and his dream could have been fulfilled.
Yet, Mrs. King did not abandon her husband's dream after his assassination. She continued his work, for you see, it was her dream too. Through her work and love for humanity she became a noted civil rights leader in her own right. She was an author, singer, and founder of the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She received the Congressional Gold Medal and the Gandhi Peace Prize.
Coretta Scott King, we thank you for giving your husband to us. Although his dream is not yet a complete reality, I know that one day all races will be holding hands in true love, respect, and equality. We thank you for continuing his work. And most of all, we thank you for giving us your love, because without your love, none of his legacy or your legacy would have been possible.
By Luella May