On 4 April 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was gunned down as he spoke from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. He was just 39 years old. He was a leader for us all and his words are as powerful today as they were when he first spoke them and wrote them.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. (MLK, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 11 December 1964)
Think of the unrest and discord all over the word. Those words could be spoken about any of the uprisings we have seen of the oppressed over the last six months. And yet they were spoken 46 years ago.
We have come so far, and yet we have so much farther to go.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. (MLK, 1963)
It's easy to be cynical these days about respect and peace. I'm not saying that there aren't things worth fighting for, because there are. But the fight won't always require a closed fist. Sometimes the fight calls for an open hand, stretched forth in love, respect, and brotherhood.
15 January 1929 - 4 April 1968
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