Martin Luther King

I have been very moved today in listening and reading the words of Martin Luther King. I can remember growing up with those words.

Martin was not just a man who fought for equality for blacks. He was a man who fought to make this country better by trying to teach us how to love each other. White or Black, Rich or Poor. His words were and are still so powerful. His messages will outlive the small, shrill voices of this time who constantly repeat their ignorant calls for war, violence and separation.

He asked us to look deep into ourselves and to find the enemy within who he sometimes referred to as the three evils of racism, materialism and militarism.

When you listen to and read Martin you quickly understand why he was so feared and so hated by men of power and why these men found it necessary to invade his privacy and publicize his failings. His Christian religious tradition was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi who taught that violence was always wrong, regardless of the consequences. Violence always lessens the human spirit and diminishes us.

He knew that he was going to be assassinated and continued going on with his business. He was afraid but not detracted from what he was called to do.

Martin's words continue to call us to our highest while many voices today that have never read him and continue to ridicule him call us to our lowest.

It was good today listening to Martin and remembering that still "I have a dream."

Victor Bremson

January 19, 2004