Begun at last. Begun at last. Thank God Almighty it's begun at last! That's right y'all. Approved for National Mall construction in 1996 by 'southside' President Bill Clinton, posted on in 2005 by Tyrone Malone, the Martin Luther King Memorial has finally broken ground with an expected debut date sometime in 2008. But amid all the hoopla and the massive glossys taken of the event (thanks for the link, 'Tini!) I'm wondering where my boy Dexter King - the 2nd youngest of the King kids- was?? I can't imagine homeboy had better things to do on such a remarkable day...
As you can see, this glossy shows 3 of the 4 King kids - Rev. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III and sister Yolanda King but no Dexter. Hmmmm. Reports on the groundbreaking also only mention these three. Ol Ty found that pretty strange since you have to figure there couldn't have been a schedule conflict big enough to keep Dexter away. So if any of my ATL readers are up on it, holler back and let us know if Dexter is illin'.I remember reading an Ebony article way back where Dexter mentioned his feelings on his brother having his father's name rather than him, but he also pointed out that he got his father's looks so it was still all good. Couldn't be a family issue that has Dexter AWOL could it? Hmmmmm....
Anyway, it's events like these that show the real benefit of being a celebrity, y'all - the ability to get invites to once in a lifetime events and rub shoulders with people who have helped shape the country and the world. I remember reading about how Will and Jada got Bishop Desmond Tutu to preside at their marriage or how they got a chance to meet Nelson Mandela. I'm not even going to mention their invite to Tom and Katie's wedding in Italy...
Now you peep into the National Dream Gala, the companion event to the MLK Memorial Groundbreaking and you see a C brand celebrity like Nick Cannon, rubbing shoulders with a room full of civil rights heavyweights *and* Oprah Winfrey. Man, it just ain't right that ol Ty didn't get an invite to that joint. And check out our girl O at the Groundbreaking. Why is it that every pair of pants you see her in are skin tight? What if those bad boys had popped a seam during her speech? People could have been hurt y'all. She could have taken out *two* Presidents!! I can't believe that the Secret Service was that lax about security.
In addition to the old guards from the civil rights struggle, I would have loved to have sat on a couch and chatted with my girl Maya Angelou. That sister is just straight deep and I love how she showed up for the ceremony looking all gangster with her pimp cane and church hat. I love this glossy. Maya is an American original y'all and I could listen to her philosophize all day. You can hear the wisdom and thoughtfulness in every sentence, just like you could with Martin Luther King. It's nice to see that *finally* generations to come will be able to come to D.C. to learn about and honor him as they do other great Americans who have made this country what it is.Peace@Least,
Tyrone
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