A Reminder: We Have the Power to "Do Something"

As we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, Global Citizens Circle is sharing an excerpt from the book, “Counter Culture: Clams, Convents, and a Circle of Global Citizens,” written by Eleanor Dunfey-Freiburger, a founding member of GCC, board member, and its former chair.
 
This excerpt reflects upon an experience many aren’t aware of, in the painful aftermath of Dr. King’s death—and reminds us that when times feel hopeless and we’re feeling helpless, we often have an opportunity to “do something.”

The sixties had bequeathed its radical upheaval and national trauma to us. A total of sixteen children were left behind when these three leaders (President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy) were killed. Adding the thousands left behind from racial conflicts and the war, people were left with a feeling of helplessness added to grief. At such times, we look for something—anything—to do. The Dunfey and Hirshberg families would, thankfully, be given that “something to do.”

In the summer of 1968, Coretta Scott King had even more responsibility than she’d had before the tragedy that shook her, her family, the nation, and the world on April fourth. She was now looking for a place where she and her four children could start to heal, to play, and to escape the attention of the nation. She hoped for a quiet place where she could begin writing what would become her book, “My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.” 
 
It so happened Earl Graves, assistant to Robert Kennedy and later, founder of Black Enterprise magazine, was close to both the King and Dunfey families. He knew Walter (Dunfey) and his wife, Barbara, had a cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. He was aware that each family had four children, some of whom were close in age. Earl called Walter and Barbara, and they extended an invitation to the King family to use their cottage that summer as a hideaway of sorts…

Life stories evolve from such invitations. This one includes a homey cottage, a bunk house, a small boat called “Putt-Putt,” a lovable black lab named Inky, a diving raft for swimming, and a collection of Irish and Jewish kids---Dunfeys and Hirshbergs…the Hirshbergs had five children…best friends and neighbors of Walter and Barbara’s four Dunfey offspring. 

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A photo reflects the fun of that summer vacation, surrounded by Dr. King’s “dream” of “prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.” Here were his children with other kids—black and white; Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish—discovering what they all had in common.  
 
Stories, like this recollection from that summer of ’68, need to live on, a legacy passed from one generation to the next. Oh, we know there are family stories of foibles and failures, of material things, of misunderstandings and hurts. What kind of stories will our children have to tell? What lasting lesson was learned from that “summer vacation”? Perhaps, the importance of invitation, of offering a safe space in time of need; of making time for the simple things..

As we consider Dr. King’s life and legacy, perhaps we can consider too what opportunities we have to ‘do something’ in the days ahead—and these acts of doing something, whether big or small, can make a real difference.

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When times feel hopeless and we’re feeling helpless, we often have an opportunity to "do something."
                                                                                                                          -Global Citizens Circle