Page 4 January 12, 2017 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Story and Photos by TerriAnn Ferren Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, and assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. President Ronald Reagan signed the American federal holiday that bears his name into law on September 2, 1983, and Americans have been celebrating King’s legacy on the third Monday of January since January 20, 1986. Who was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? I thought adults would easily answer that question, but I wanted to find out what people would say if asked. A few days ago, I asked a young adult, Ozzie Antuna, who Martin Luther King, Jr. was and he told me, “He was a non-violent civil-rights activist and he was a minister too. And he was shot.” Later that night, I asked 10-year-old Madison Jane the same question and she thought a minute and then said, “He was a man that fought for equal rights for everyone. And someone shot him. We have a holiday for him. And he helped Rosa Parks too.” Wow, that impressed me and I told her so, but she assured me anyone in her fourth grade class would have answered the same way. Last year, I had the honor of speaking with Torrance resident Ted Lange--actor, writer, producer and playwright--who played Isaac on the popular 1970s hit television show The Love Boat (see Torrance Tribune, January 22, 2015). Lange has done important, extensive historical research for his plays and is the only person I know who knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eldest daughter, Yolanda, who died in 2007- -and is one of only two people I know who had met Coretta Scott King. I remember Lange told me that when he starred with Yolanda in the play Willie and Esther, he discovered that Yolanda was a gifted comedic actress. Later, Yolanda King and Ted Lange worked together in a play written by Ted, called Soul Survivor. Ted took time from his work, getting ready for a reading of his new play, The Cause, My Soul, The Prequel to Othello, which will be done in New York on January 18, to speak with me. He told me that on November 17, 2015, he was honored to emcee a show—a memorial birthday party--in honor of Yolanda, who would have turned 60 years old on that day. The event was held at the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Change in Atlanta, Georgia. Lange told me, “It was really beautiful and we reviewed Yolanda’s life and we also talked about Mrs. King. We had people come out and talk about what Yolanda meant to them, and they set up a foundation in Yolanda King’s name. They had dancers, singers and stand-up comedians, and I saw all the children. Oh, and Julia Roberts’ brother Eric Roberts and Yolanda were classmates and did the play The Owl and the Pussycat in high school. Isn’t that amazing?” For me, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy is about peace. He promoted it, he preached it, he lived it, and acted upon that belief. And I know he was the youngest person ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35 in 1964. Later the next day, I asked Vietnam Veteran and author Ron Kovic if he would tell me about his encounter with the King family. I knew he had met Coretta Scott King, but I never asked about how that encounter actually happened. This is that story. Kovic began, “I had the honor of meeting Coretta Scott King for the first time at the Democratic National Convention in New York City in 1976. There was a long receiving line and, when I finally went up to her, I shook her hand and said, ‘Mrs. King, it is an honor to meet you.’ Several years later, while flying from Tampa, Florida, after visiting my parents, I happen to stop in Atlanta, Georgia for the night on my way to a meeting in New York.” Kovic told me it was very late and the layover was for one night. He caught a cab into Atlanta and began looking for a hotel to spend the night. The cab driver drove him around a long time trying to find a hotel with a vacancy to no avail. Then, the cab driver told Kovic he knew of a motel on the other side of town where he thought there might be a room. Kovic agreed and the cabbie drove him to The White House Motel, where they were surprised to discover there was one room left on the third floor, as there was a convention at the inn. Kovic took the room, thanked and paid the cab driver, and spent the night at The White House Motel. “This is one of the great ironies of my life… I got up the next morning and headed to the elevator in my wheelchair--I had been wounded in Vietnam,” Kovac said. “Thinking that I had pressed the button in the elevator for the restaurant on the first floor, I exited the elevator, but discovered I had mistakenly pushed the second-floor button. Down the hall in the distance, there was a ballroom and I saw a woman sitting behind a table greeting people as they went into some event. As I got closer to the open door, I realized it was Coretta Scott King sitting behind that table welcoming people into the room. I couldn’t believe it.” Kovac wheeled up to Mrs. King and remembers she had the biggest smile on her face and her eyes were radiating with warmth and love. “She was so warm and friendly, and she didn’t know me or remember me and I said, ‘I am a Vietnam Veteran and you probably don’t remember me, Mrs. King, but I met you at the Democratic Convention in New York in 1976.’ I was actually wheeling up to the table to ask the woman where the restaurant was, and that is when I realized who she was. It was more like, Mrs. King? I was surprised,” confessed Kovic. He told me he said, “It is an honor to meet you again.” Then he asked what was going on inside the ballroom. Kovic told her his name and she told him that the meeting was the annual gathering of the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Change. Kovic continued, “She called me by my first name. She said, ‘Ron, would you like to join us tonight? We are having our last dinner meeting of the conference.’ She invited me to be a guest--just by sheer coincidence. I had gotten off at the wrong floor! I told her it would be an honor and I would be there later that night. She told me it would begin at seven, and I thanked her. I cancelled my flight. I changed everything because this doesn’t happen every day. I couldn’t help but feel there was something spiritual and part of destiny. It wasn’t a coincidence, it was different. This was unusual. Later that night, I attended the event. I knew no one.” He told me the attendees were very gracious and he listened to many speeches while seated at a table near the front of the room. “Mrs. King spoke and then something really remarkable happened that I will never forget. The evening ended with everyone in the room making a great circle and holding hands, and I became part of that circle. And we all sang, ‘We Shall Overcome.’ I was singing with all of them, with all the people who worked with Dr. King. Then, glancing to my left, I realized I was holding hands with Dr. King’s father,” Kovic said. Kovic told me he will never forget the day he rolled into history when he accidentally pushed the wrong button in an elevator on the way to breakfast and ended up being invited to Coretta Scott King’s dinner. “When I held Dr. King’s father’s hand, I had tears in my eyes--as I do now remembering the story so many years later,” Kovac said. “Martin Luther King, especially his commitment to peace and non-violence, had a profound effect on me when I arrived home from the Vietnam War--and I remain committed to Dr. King’s principles of peace and non-violence to this day.” Ron Kovic told me he will always remember that trip when there was no place for him at the inns, and a cab driver drove him to a motel in Atlanta where he would find a room and meet Mrs. King and Dr. King’s father. Lastly, every 20th of January, Kovic reflects on the life of Martin Luther King because that same day, he was shot and paralyzed in Vietnam. “Sometimes I think of the other irony--it was that spring of 1968, January 20th, that I was shot and wounded and several months later while I was recuperating on Long Island with other Marines is when Dr. King was shot. I will always remember that day. It is a reminder to love and forgive. There is something higher and something else going on. Only a few years after I held ‘Daddy King’s’ hand, he died,” Kovic said. Learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his life and his family, along with the encounters of others, broadens the story of the great American we celebrate this January 16. • TerriAnn in Torrance Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Stamp. Ron Kovic. Ozzie Antuna. Resolutions from front page rate was 42 percent, some of which can be blamed on unrealistic goals that set the bar too high. “Don’t make yours a marathon if you’re not running,” Dr. Armstrong said. There are two kinds of associates who can make or break another person’s will to succeed, in Armstrong’s experience. Friends, relatives, co-workers and bosses either fall into the “support” or “thwart” category, and she says to watch out for the naysayers in the latter group. Avoid sharing your goals with co-workers who will sabotage your inspiration for selfimprovement. Instead, look for trusted people around work who share the goals and will support them. Don’t talk about your goals to someone you believe is pulling for you to fail, Dr. Armstrong said. “You know who those people are. Trust your gut,” she added. A recently published book for employers and employees about well-being in the workplace cautions goal-setters to expect challenges sticking to their fitness and food plans at the office. Author Leigh Stringer in her work and research for Harvard School of Public Policy writes that nutrition at work often takes a backseat to meetings and deadlines, both of which are beyond the employee’s control. A culture of wellness among employees starts when employers and companies decide to assist their workers in eating better, exercising and not sitting at a desk all day, and interacting more with their officemates and co-workers. She cites case studies of companies that encouraged employees to change their 9 to 5 habits and grew their profits while lowering employee healthcare costs. The danger of putting off exercise until after work or weekends is there’s not enough time to meet the weekly target of 150 minutes, Stringer writes. Cramming workouts into Saturdays and Sundays increases the risk of injury for “weekend warriors” and do-it-yourselfers with home improvement projects, yard work and family obligations to meet, she cautions. “The same goes for nutrition, stress reduction and sleep. Waiting for the weekend won’t cut it,” she writes in The Healthy Workplace - How to Improve the Well-Being of Your Employees - and Boost Your Company’s Bottom Line, published last year by the American Management Association. Some easy-to-do suggestions in the book can be adapted to fit the New Year’s resolutions that Americans made for 2017, based on the survey results at Statisticbrain.com. Number one on the list was to lose weight and eat healthier, followed by self-improvement and life changes, smarter financial choices, quit smoking, experience more excitement, and spend time with family and friends. Stringer suggests taking the stairs more instead of riding elevators, and walking across the room or down the hall for a face-to-face conversation with a co-worker or boss instead of calling or emailing. “But walking, by itself, is not always a recipe for creating radical new ideas,” she writes. “For that, we need to bump into people and break out of our comfort zone a bit.” One study Stringer cites in The Healthy Workplace touts the benefits of walking to stimulate creativity and problem-solving. While walking outdoors brings a change of scenery and fresh air, strolling indoors or in a small, enclosed patio area also unleashes brain activity that is missing when people concentrate on a single task, she found. Walking also has been linked to better attention and short-term memory. Eating habits suffer at work and Stringer’s data shows it. Only one-third of U.S. workers take a lunch break and a majority of them eat at their desks, according to an online survey done by Right Management. The human resources consultant learned that workers who ate as they worked felt less full after a meal compared with their counterparts who pushed away from the desk for lunch. “Eating while you work is not just bad for digestion,” Stringer writes. “You actually eat more and get hungrier later.” Stringer’s tips to improve energy, creativity and physical movement within the workplace See Resolutions, page 7
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