Updated Jan 19, 2009 - 1:14 pm
South Seattle school celebrates holiday with special song
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KIRO Radio
An elementary school in south Seattle school is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a historic presidential inauguration with a special song.
Roxhill Elementary teacher Chris Robert said he wrote the song after reading a statement before the presidential election. "It was a sentence that said 'Rosa sat so that Martin could march so Barack could run' and when I read that, I thought it was very clever and I thought it was really profound." He paired the words with a tune from the African American spiritual "Amen." The result was not only a song, but a lesson on civil rights for his students.
"Rosa Parks, Martin L. King. and Barack Obama are important because they changed the law," said one kindergartner sitting on the risers.
Robert explained to the children there was a time when laws kept whites and people of color apart. "I talked about my parents. My parents grew up in Louisiana, went to colored-only schools. Look around us. Look at this classroom. We have white kids, we have black kids, we have Asian kids, we have Latino kids, we have multi-racial kids in this classroom. There are parts of the country where this classroom could not have existed."
But it does because of the defiance of people like Rosa Parks and the dreams of Martin Luther King.
"Parks kept sitting on the bus and then Martin Luther King marched around in the streets, and Barack Obama now is the first black man to be president," said a proud singer.
If there is proof of the civil rights movement in the White House, there is evidence here, too. "When I see all of those faces up there smiling and singing the song, it really is Martin's dream come true," said Robert.
Holiday closures
Schools and government offices are closed.
Garbage pickup is on regular schedules, and Seattle's transfer and recycling stations are open.
Post offices are closed. No delivery except for express mail.
Many banks and credit unions are closed.
Public libraries and state-owned liquor stores are closed.
Metro buses are operating with a reduced weekday schedule.
Pierce Transit and Everett Transit are on regular weekday schedules.
Snohomish County's Community Transit local buses are on regular schedules.
Sound Transit is operating on holiday schedule. Sound Transit Express buses are on regular weekday schedule.
Tacoma Link rail trains are on regular weekday schedule.
State ferries are on regular weekday schedules.
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