A recent assignment in English gave Zach Wunderly the opportunity to shine. His oral presentation required he present an experience that constituted a personal epiphany. Zach chose to discuss his trip to Selma, Alabama in March of 2007 to commemorate Bloody Sunday.
The march earned the name "Bloody Sunday" because of the violent attack on demonstrators by local policemen and state troopers at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, just six blocks away from where the march started. Georgia Congressman, John Lewis (seen on the right with Presidential candidate, Hilary 
Clinton) came for the original March on March 7, 1965. Lewis was lucky to come away from the march alive given troopers have fractured and bloodied his skull during their attack on peaceful demonstrators. Two days later, on March 9, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a ceremonial march to the bridge, where participants gathered for a prayer and returned back to the city. The March 7 march was originally supposed to end in Montgomery, Alabama.Lewis is one of the heroes of the civil rights movement. Lewis returns each year to remember the Bloody Sunday anniversary. This year, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were there, too.
Zach reported to his class how everyone met at Brown Chapel. The church overflowed with hundreds, maybe thousands, outside listening to the services.
Once services broke, several well known people addressed the crowds waiting outside while organizers began lining up for the March to the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Barack Obama and Al Sharpton both rallied
the demonstrators with
inspiring speeches about where we've been and how far we have come and how we haven't come far enough. President Clinton ran late; so, the speeches ran long. When America's 42nd President finally arrived, he was treated like nothing less than a rock star. Crowds literally ran toward him. It was a nightmare for the half a dozen or so secret service agents there protecting him. Zach's little brother Sam, with the help of stepdad, Paul, touched the President's sleeve trying for a handshake.
Ladies, especially older ladies, were practically swooning as Clinton and his group pushed their way to the front of the march. Finally, things began to move ever so slowly. A woman with a powerful voice began a round
of Amen. Zach's Muslim friend from Hoover High School joined in on the singing. (I mention it because I don't think "Amen" hymns are part of the tradition of Islam. So, I was moved by his being moved to raise his teenage voice.)
Selma looks like a ghost town in some parts with its boarded store fronts and dilapidated homes, but on March 7, 2007 it was very much alive.
Once we rounded a corner through downtown Selma the approach to the bridge was in sight. We saw thousands of heads and the steel arcs that span the Alabama River. Zach noted in his report that he was touched that 42 years after the fact so many people would reunite to remember tragedy, to remember that some things are worth fighting for...things like freedom and justice.
I can’t believe Jon Stewart is airing repeats this week. If I were him, I’d reschedule vacation. It’s just too good.
“We are all Nintendo warriors today. Remember that game, that electronic game, a few years ago, push buttons zim, zam, boom and it was all over with? That is not the way you fight war, although we as a society have grown to believe that.” — Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) during debate on an amendment to a bill providing for defense authorization.