March 24th

Rachel and I were in Atlanta today, in the company of a king who was taken down much too young and the longest-living president in US history.

The Martin Luther King Center includes the house in which he was born in 1929, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where his grandfather, his father and he preached, the graves of Martin and Coretta Scott King by a reflecting pool and a visitor center with good exhibits on his life and legacy.

The Jimmy Carter Museum and Library was a very-well designed story of Carter’s life and public service. He graduated from the Naval Academy and was commander of one of the first nuclear submarines. But when his father died, he went back to Plains, ran the family business and then was elected a state senator, governor and president. He and his wife Rosalyn have been extremely active since 1981 in negotiating peace treaties, eradicating diseases and publicizing mental health issues.

Then I dropped off Rachel at the airport and braved the downtown traffic long enough to take pictures of the former Olympic Stadium/Turner Field and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Patriots won the Super Bowl last month.

Today’s song is “Gimme Gimme Good Loving” by Crazy Elephant – google it. It’s from 1969 and I probably haven’t heard it in 49 years but it came to mind because the first line is “From Atlanta Georgia”.