Martin Luther Things

In school they teach us about Martin Luther King Jr's famous dream. Every year on the Friday before MLK day, they stop classes fifteen minutes early and play his Dream Speech over the loud speaker. We sit in last period, thankful that we are listening to the booming voice of history rather than writing an essay about it. Some of us listen with indifference, waiting for the final bell to ring. Most of us feel inspired, and we compliment our silent concentration with a knowing grin.

None of us, though, could ever comprehend what in the world Dr. King was talking about.

What is this dream? We already have classmates of all races and cultural backgrounds. We already have restaurants and movie theatres that serve every American no matter where they are from or what they look like. We just finished watching a two-year political theatre act staring the oldest and youngest presidential candidates ever, at least two women campaigning in major positions, and a black man giving a presidential victory speech. What else is there to dream about?

Dr. King's dream was an important one and it is important for us to commemorate it every year. It is a shame, though, that his most famous speech overshadows all of the other important things he believed in.

It would also be a shame if we forgot who Martin Luther King Jr. and his father were named after: Martin Luther--a German monk and religious reformer born in 1483.

Funny enough, the two men had quite a few opinions in common. So, in memory of both of them and in commemoration of tomorrow's inaguaration, here are a few quotes from Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. that I think might enspire a few dreamers like me:

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
-Martin Luther

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.
-Martin Luther

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.
-Martin Luther

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
-Martin Luther King Jr.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
-Martin Luther

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
-Martin Luther King Jr.