Martin Luther King, Jr. - remembered

Today we honor a great man.  Not a perfect man, of course.  But a man that gave us much to choose from in terms of inspiration and admiration.  A minister, an activist, a civil rights leader and human rights icon.  A great orator.  The youngest male recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.  A force in the ending of racial segregation and discrimination.  A man who chose the methods of civil disobedience and non-violence.  One who ended his lifetime fighting poverty and opposing the war in Vietnam.  A man who spent himself on behalf of others.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."

"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

"Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Today I honor this man and His enduring dream.  Thank you, Reverend King for daring to dream it.

{image found at Africa Within}