On this observence of Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday I reflect once again on the person and legacy that is commemorated on this day. A local radio station plays his speech, "I Have Been to the Mountaintop", given the day before he was killed, on every anniversary of his birth. The speech awes and inspires me every time I hear it.
I think every year on this day of the reason Dr. King was killed. It was the same reason that Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, and Jesus Christ were killed. Dr. King spoke plainly. He told a truth that so many labored to keep in the dark. It is only when a person no longer has a reasonable argument that he resorts to violence. Many are so desparate that they would rather kill the bearer than allow the light to illuminate their ugly side. And so each of these men died violently. God must cry when he sees the desparate souls. Imagining God crying deep, racking sobs is ubelievably sad.
It is a statement -- a judgment, a conviction, a damnation -- that 140 years after blacks were legally freed in the United States we still have to struggle with immoral and illegal discrimination. Is there any wonder that rap music sounds angry and is beset with images of power? What is so difficult about letting someone be equal with us white folk? Personal and social insecurity is no reason to deny the sharing of life's riches.
If God were to give me the option of choosing which age to live in I would wonder mightily what the world will be like once we overcome insecurities on a grand scale. But that would be an easy age for someone like me to live in. Whether it is to feel satisfied that I was able to strive against wrongness with my abilities in this age or to merely accept that I am here despite any wishes, I wish to be a part of the struggle to bring my brothers and sisters of all shades into the equality of estimation and opportunity, to not fear merely based on ethnicity, to love regardless of type. From all I was ever taught, this is what God expects of me.
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