Borrowed Words: Martin Luther King, Jr.
In addition to honoring a remarkable man, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has special meaning for me: It was the day we buried my mother.
For several years following her death, my annual Christmas card included a Martin Luther King, Jr. quote signed with the simple words ‘Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men.” Words I felt that we, as a Country, had lost the understanding and compassion for.
I’d like to share an excerpt in remembrance––
Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction.
I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow.
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies; education and culture for their minds; and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.
I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up.
I still believe that we shall overcome.
Martin Luther King, Jr.