In His Own Words....

On January 15, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been 79. Today, I had a day off in remembrance of his life and work, which not only included his tireless work for the civil rights movement, but also his Poor People's Campaign, and his public opposition to the Vietnam war. As I was reading about Dr. King earlier this evening, I was struck by these words spoken at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967:

"As I have walked among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.

But they asked, and rightly so, what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent."

Interesting in light of current events, isn't it? I believe that Dr. King would have similar words about the U.S.'s current involvement in Iraq. I don't think he would have been able to keep silent today, either. I hope in my heart of hearts that all of us let our voices be heard and carry on his important work of peace-making, in big ways and in small ways, every day. We ALWAYS needs more peacemakers. Thank you, Dr. King, for being one of the greatest our world has ever known. We miss you.