Happy Martin Luther King Day
"Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”
“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
A beautiful man, with a beautiful message. Accepting other people's voices, viewpoints, and opinions, without judgement, without malice is the first step toward peace. If we start there America, it will have no choice but to spread to others, eventually, around the world.
A great speech, one that will not be quoted today in many places, was King's "A Time to Break Silence" sometimes titled "Beyond Vietnam", given at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967.
"A time comes when silence is betrayal." He went on at length, as Kennedy often does, to explain the depth of his understanding. What would MLK, Jr., say today about Gaza? What would he ask
of the founder of an organization called Children's Defense Fund, with its vision of "a nation committed to equity and justice where children ...live with dignity, hope, and joy"-- only a nation?
Not a world?
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm