Martin Luther King Day

January 2006

Meet today's cast...
Fr. Charlie: Quite a wit, pastor of our flock	Tina: Fun loving, very serious about life, studious	Turner: Tina's twin brother..trying to learn how to be peaceful when someone is picking on him, can be mischievous.
Blue: Shaggy's, shaggy friend. Feels sad a lot because others make fun of him because he looks different but he is kind to others and thinks before he speaks.	Shaggy: Our favorite monster	Charleeeene: Charlene loves the letter "P" so you hear her using a lot of words beginning with that letter. She says very funny things but she doesn't know she's doing it sometimes!

FR. CHARLIE: Good morning! How is everyone? Tina’s with me today and we’ve been talking about a special day tomorrow, the day we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., right Tina?

TINA: That’s right, Fr. Charlie. Dr. King wanted everyone to realize that we are all God’s children and we should treat each other equally. That means………

Out comes Charlene, Shaggy, and Turner

SHAGGY: QUICK, QUICK! Charlene get me some Elmer’s glue. Turner get a STAPLE GUN!!!

FR. CHARLIE: Shaggy,what’s wrong? Why do you want Elmer’s glue and a staple gun?

SHAGGY: It’s that Crabby Abby! When she opens her mouth nothin’ but mean words come out of it, right Turner?

TURNER: Right! Fr. Charlie and Tina….she has Mouthous out of Controlious!

TINA: Mouthous out of Controlious? What’s that, Shaggy?

SHAGGY: Well, the words comin’ out of that mouth are OUT OF CONTROL so I’m on a MISSION! I’m gonna close it shut!

TURNER: Yeh! Charlene and I were thinkin’--You know when people say, “Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you”?

CHARLENE: Well, that’s positively preposterous! Words CAN hurt!

FR. CHARLIE: Yes, they can…but who is going to tell me what Abby said?

SHAGGY: Blue will, Fr. Charlie. Hey, where is he anyway? (Blue comes out)
There you are! Blue, tell everyone what she said to you.

BLUE: Oh, alright…Crabby Abby was makin’ fun of me and she said,
You have blue fur and big googly eyes, too.
Why you look so funny you should live at the zoo!

ALL THE PUPPETS GASP AND REACT!

SHAGGY: Hey, I have googly eyes, too! Where’s that glue? Where’s that staple gun?

FR. CHARLIE: Blue, that’s terrible! What did you do?

BLUE: I got mad and told her everyone calls her Crabby Abby because she’s always saying mean things! And…and…if she didn’t watch out I’d have Charlene TEACH HER A LESSON…….right Charlene?

CHARLENE: Yep! I told her she was a pest and if she persisted, she was gonna have a problem because I was gonna proceed to pull her pigtails and push her in a puddle!

All the puppets cheer and laugh except FR. CHARLIE & TINA. They shake their heads!

TINA: Stop cheering and laughing, especially you, Turner! Have you forgotten about tomorrow? Do you remember an important word Dr. King, spoke about?

TURNER: (holds his head down) Yeah, I remember. He wanted people to live PEACEFULLY together and solve problems PEACEFULLY!

SHAGGY: But Tina, he also talked about another word….PREJUDICE. Crabby Abby was acting prejudiced towards Blue because he looks different than her!

CHARLENE: Yeh..and she’s always teasin’ me by askin’ me if my big head can fit in my bed! Well, my head may be big but her head is filled with ….

CHARLENE/SHAGGY/BLUE/TURNER: STINKIN THINKIN!

FR. CHARLIE: HMMMM…so Crabby Abby has stinkin thinkin’. (They nod)
Well, I remember when ALL OF YOU had stinkin thinkin? Do you remember, Charlene?

CHARLENE: Uh, oh…yeh, Fr. Charlie. When I first saw Shaggy & Blue I was scared of them cos they were a different color than me. I wasn’t going to play with them.

BLUE: We felt the same way about you, Charlene.

CHARLENE: Well, I’m glad Fr. Charlie helped us cos now we’re perfect pals!

FR. CHARLIE: Turner, what about you?

TURNER: Well…when Charlene moved to Puppetville my friends and I made fun of her because she talked funny so we didn’t think we’d like her.

TINA: But, Fr. Charlie, they’re all friends now so what happened? How did you help them stop their stinkin thinkin?

SHAGGY/BLUE/CHARLENE/TURNER: “M&M’s” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TINA: “M&M’s”? The candy, Shaggy?

SHAGGY: Yep! Fr. Charlie is very clever, Tina. Tell her what you did, Fr. Charlie!

FR. CHARLIE: Well, I wanted to show them that they were not treating each other right. I called each one on the phone and told each one to come see me. Boy, were they surprised when they arrived at the same time and I had them sit together in one room!

TINA: Oh no! What happened?

FR. CHARLIE: I told them that I was disappointed in how they were treating each other and that they had forgotten what God teaches us. Shaggy, what is that?

SHAGGY: That God loves all of us, that no one is better than anyone else, and that He created us in His own special way.

TINA: Why that’s what Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to tell everyone! So, what about the M&M’s, Fr. Charlie?

FR. CHARLIE: I dumped all the M&M’s in a bowl. What happened next, Charlene?

CHARLENE: You told us that M&M’s are like us! We can be different colors, be different looking, talk differently and stuff like that. Turner, you go next.

TURNER: Well, Fr. Charlie told us God made us different on the outside but the same on the inside….JUST LIKE M&M’s, right Blue?

BLUE: Yep, the M&M’s are different colors on the outside but the same on the INSIDE – they’re all made of chocolate!

TINA: That’s what Dr. King wanted people to understand! We can look different on the outside but on the inside we all have feelings, thoughts, and may like the same stuff too!

FR. CHARLIE: Ah, but that’s not all I did, Tina. I had each of them pick up ONE M&M and go to each puppet in the room. They had to say ONE thing that was different about each other and ONE thing they THOUGHT was the same, right Charlene?

CHARLENE: Yep…we didn’t want to do it at first…you know, cos I had to go the Shaggy and Blue and I didn’t want to do that.

TURNER: And I had to go to Charlene and I didn’t like her.

TINA: So, what happened, Blue?

BLUE: It was AWESOME, Tina! When we went around the first time, we wanted to do it again! So, we all picked up another M&M. We found out we were more alike than we thought! We had so much fun, we used up the whole bag of M&M’s!

CHARLENE: Hey, I think I need to try this at home with my sister!

TINA: Fr. Charlie….maybe we should try and get to know Crabby Abby.

SHAGGY: WHAT! You gotta be kiddin’! There’s NO WAY she’s the same and……

TURNER: SHAGGY…what would Dr. King want us to do? What would God want us to do? We may not WANT to do it, but it’s the RIGHT thing to do.

FR. CHARLIE: So, Shaggy……….should I make that phone call?

SHAGGY: Oh, I guess so….but just bring the SMALLEST bag of M&M’s you can find, Fr. Charlie…I don’t think we’ll be here very long……….

FR. CHARLIE: Let’s try it! We don’t know what will happen but it’s the RIGHT thing to do. Dr. Martin Luther King tried telling people that we should not just look at the way people look on the outside to decide if we like them. We have to be sure we know what’s inside because we might miss something we’d really like. Just look at all of you—you are now good friends!

PUPPET PULPIT PHRASE:

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

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