April 4, 2010

Early Evening, April 4th...

At 6:01pm, April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated. I grew up learning about him and his life, and did my share of papers on him as a student. To learn more about today's events, I took this section from Wikipedia:

Then, at 6:01 p.m., April 4, 1968, a shot rang out as King stood on the motel's second floor balcony. The bullet entered through his right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder.[114] Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the floor.[115] The events following the shooting have been disputed, as some people have accused Jackson of exaggerating his response.[116]
After emergency chest surgery, King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m.[117] According to biographer Taylor Branch, King's autopsy revealed that though only thirty-nine years old, he had the heart of a sixty-year-old man, perhaps a result of the stress of thirteen years in the civil rights movement.[118]

U2's Pride and MLK were written for him, although at a live show, during "Pride" you'll hear Bono sing the lyric as "early evening" instead of "early morning" as it was recorded on the album. Over the years, MLK has found new meaning at the live shows, as Bono has dedicated it to the 9/11 victims, Rosa Parks and Aung San Suu Kyi. Personally, as a Dad to two boys, I see the song as a nighttime prayer from a father to his child.

To find the soul of U2, listen to these two songs.

Here are a few videos for you to watch in this regard:















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