The following are quotes from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the bottom of the post is a link to view and hear his “I Have a Dream” speech. Additionally, to find a service project in your area, visit: http://mlkday.gov/
Dr. King’s words are as prophetic as ever. Prophets do not foretell the future as a crystal ball conjurer; instead, a prophet holds forth a vision of how the future can be if we tend the tree of justice and let the fruit of peace flourish from its branches. Their words can also be frightful when they describe what happens when we poison the soil in which the tree of justice attempts to send its roots.
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An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns for all humanity.
To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.
As long as there is poverty in the world, I can never be rich; even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy; even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way the world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.
