2025-01-20 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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When I was a teenager and met the first US citizens talking about
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I was confused. I knew nothing about this
guy. My step mother is from Angola, grew up in Portugal, and we never
spoke about the fight for civil rights.

I knew there were racists out there, but back in Switzerland I only
saw the kind of punching down that is unfortunately very common: the
children of Italian gastarbeiters, asylum seekers from Sri Lanka,
refugees from the civil war in Yugoslavia -- it was always against the
newest arrivals, the lowest station on the social ladder.

I guess that's why it took me so long to finally read the Letter from
Birmingham Jail.

Don't just read the summary on Wikipedia. Read the actual letter.

On fedi, @llimllib@hachyderm.io said that they read it every year on
Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What a great idea.

And in other news, @adapalmer@wandering.shop writes about the
surprising recovery of sea turtles:

> How's this for some good news? Recent studies show that sea turtle
> populations are booming worldwide. Loggerhead nests off the
> northwest African coast have jumped to 35,000 in 2020 from 500 in
> 2008. Kemp’s ridley nests have grown to 17,000 in 2022 from 702 in
> 1985, and a 2023 survey discovered 150,000 green turtle nests in New
> Caledonia. The surprising reason: reduced consumption by humans. --
> Ada Palmer, summarizing a Sea Turtles Aren’t Vanishing. In Fact
> They’re Thriving, by David Fickling, for Bloomberg

Maybe I should sign up to this site:

> Fix The News is an independent, subscriber-supported publication,
> read by 60,000 people from 195 countries. Each week, we find 30-40
> stories of progress from around the world, and summarise and share
> them in our email newsletter.

#Politics