MLK

Thanks to Man of La Mancha for the reminder re: MLK. He was martyred 38 years ago today. He is just as relevant today. Here are some favorite quotes.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

A lie cannot live.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

Things look so bleak for the world right now. Some days it's nearly impossible to believe that we actually could make the world better. King's "I Have a Dream" speech gives me hope. Things looked so bleak for African Americans, the U.S. and the world that day. Yet he persevered and compelled people not to sit down, but to keep fighting. (MP3 and transcript for the speech here.)

If George W. Bush and Norm Coleman were King's contemporaries, they would likely say, as Norm has about nonviolence in the past, "We cannot just sit around and sing Kum By Ya." But we have the evidence. Martin changed the U.S. for the better. Nonviolent resistance works. More about MLK here and in a previous post.

You can listen to an excellent speech by Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America During the King Years, on Minnesota Public Radio. The book is about the last four year's of King's life.