Today, January 15, is both the Federal Holiday honoring Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and also his actual birthday. A few years ago, I wrote out a list of 100 people who died before I was born that I wish I could have met and shared a meal. MLK was one of the top names as his core convictions about merit, non-violence, and the equality match my own. I have discussed excellence and success within this blog; however, I believe Dr. King summed it up eloquently when he wrote “If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”
His “I have a Dream” speech is one of the best recognized from the entire 20th century and rightly so; however, he said so much more. Below are three statements from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that still are true and haunt our world today. Of course, as a prisoner of history, his language seems sexist; yet, I am certain he would be more careful and use inclusive diction if he were alive today.
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” - Speech in St. Louis, Missouri, March 22, 1964
“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.” - Strength in Love (1963), Ch. 7
“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.” - Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964.
Comments