Apostle of Nonviolence
Several years ago I visited the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Through my eyes, the motel looked absolutely ordinary. Two floors, blue painted doors, a balcony, the building set in a lake of concrete. Unremarkable. But my skin tingled with the awareness that a truly great human being had been assassinated on-site. Slowly I inhaled and exhaled, sobered by the mission of the man and his legacy that can never be snuffed out.
As a child, Martin Luther King Jr. Day meant little more to me than a day off school. Today I feel compelled to stop and reflect, to learn from Dr. King’s vision, courage, and unwavering devotion to freedom for all people. Watching his speeches, I am struck time and again by his lack of affectation. There was never a hint of the motivational speaker straining to be motivational. His words flowed from the center of his being, from his rawest convictions, from universal truth. And their ripple effects were beyond measure.
