Seeds From Our Youth
On January 21, 1996, at the age of 13, my son Joseph was asked to write a paper in his History class about what he thought Martin Luther King Jr. would say about the world today if he were alive.
These were Joseph’s words:
“I have a dream!” a wise man once said. A man who had dreams and goals beyond most people of his time, a man of vision, courage, hopefulness, and a man with love and compassion towards a dream he knew he could breathe life into. It did.
This man was Martin Luther King Jr, assassinated on April 14, 1968; it was a tragedy that will never be forgotten, and the true meaning of his life’s work will be treasured forever.
Or will it?
“Let freedom ring throughout the nation!” a great man once said. But his words were lost on most.
“After all I said, all I did, all I taught, all I fought for, freedom rings, but in an off-key tone.” Martin Luther King Jr. murmurs.
Or at least, I think he’s saying that. Even though we don’t have “colored” or “non-colored” bathrooms anymore, we segregate ourselves with the way people group themselves. We’ve only gone one meter in a one-hundred-meter race against time and segregation.
Why is it that everything is an issue, like the O.J. Simpson Trial and the L.A. riots? If so many people followed Martin Luther King Jr., marched with him, and fought with him for the right to be free and not segregated, why do we still seem to segregate ourselves from each other? White and black, Hispanic and Asian, all need to stop being “those”; they all need just one name…
” PEOPLE.”
This is what I believe Martin Luther King Jr. would think of the world today….
“I have won the battle, but not the war.”
🌎 🌎 🌎 🌎 🌎 🌎
At the time, I remembered being surprised that a young Italian-Irish boy who enjoyed playing Nintendo and football with his brothers MUST HAVE had some deep-seated convictions on how important Martin Luther King Jr.’s words.
I tucked the report in my keepsake box, thinking it would be something meaningful to revisit during those inevitable teenage years. And as a reminder that my children retained important information about our History, which will hopefully help shape their morals and help them respect their fellow human beings as they become adults.
I write this article to tell you where that 13-year-old boy is now, the paths he chose, and why I believe Martin Luther King’s words are embedded in his heart still today.
At 20, while still in college, he received a school grant to Washington, D.C., for 6 months to work with the Amnesty International Program on peaceful ways to address global issues.
The following year, he went to Beijing to study abroad and learned about the country's culture, where he learned to speak, read, and write Mandarin.
After graduation, Joseph joined the Peace Corps, where he taught English in a small village in Madagascar. However, when he first arrived, the welcome was far from pleasant. This 6’ fair-skinned man was shunned by quite a few of the villagers he lived with and was told many times to go back to where he came from.
A few months after he settled into his one-room structure, I received a letter from Joseph. He told me a story of hanging meat from the ceiling so it would be hard to reach by the rodents and cockroaches that lived behind the walls of his home.
He said there was a fire pit in the middle of the room used for cooking that this city boy did not have a clue how to use and an outhouse that was 3ft high and because of the weight of his foot, kept breaking the wood that was to hold him up.
Joseph also wrote that, as he entered his dwelling for the first time, eight people were living in the small space. There was a small cot in the corner that was to be his bed, and because his place was on the main road, passersby would look in his window, point, and laugh at him. And this was only the first week.
At that point, I had to put the letter down and allow my heart to cry a billion tears.
After I collected myself, I picked it up again and read on.
Joseph continued… he realized then that he had two choices: to leave, as they persisted in doing, or to put aside judgments and anger and get to know these “People” by listening to their stories with humility and respect. And so he stepped outside, walked among the villagers, and, in his broken Malagasy words, sat with them, asked questions, and listened to their hearts.
Doing this was a turning point for him, and for the villagers who lived there, and even though life was still difficult, he had help and helped where he could.
By taking that courageous first step, my son chose connection over judgement, compassion over fear.
And embraced Martin Luther King’s words to better himself and share his hope and compassion with the “People” around him. And even in that difficult route, he followed his heart and made a difference, just as Martin Luther King Jr. would have.
Joseph’s dream since college has always been to change the world in a more positive, productive way, and after the Peace Corps, he helped small, environmentally conscious businesses make a difference through community involvement and collaboration.
A few years ago, at age 40, Joseph decided to hang up his business suit and become a nurse. I was surprised but more curious, so I asked him what pulled him to change his profession at this stage of the game.
His answer: “Mom, I feel I am not using the strengths and skills I have to contribute to the world, to my community, to others in need of a light and a smile in dark, heavy times.”
I had an ah-hah moment when Joseph said those words, and emotion rose. My youngest son…has quietly become one of life’s essential teachers for us, just by the way he lives his life.
I do believe our children want to have heroes. Martin Luther King Jr. died 15 years before Joseph was born, yet his words touched his heart, and he was one of the people who helped shape him into the man he is today… as a mother, I am thankful.🦋
Thought to Ponder
Thinking back on the people who shaped your life, who inspired you simply by the way they lived?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.🌎
© 2026 Terry Pottinger