By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
We think of dreams as personal things, of what we hope to do or to become. Sometimes we share those dreams with those closest to us and we guard and protect them as we would a small child until they grow strong enough to survive. It is seldom that we share our dreams with strangers or, worse still, those with whom we might be at odds. Our dreams, whatever they might be, are precious to us and so we do not expose them to the insensitivity or malice of a world that all too often turns hateful and violent. Flowers seldom grow in hard, frozen soil after all.
But what if your dream, that precious desire or goal, was to somehow loosen that hardpacked earth and to thaw the frozen soil? What if for your dream to have any hope of survival it must be cast out upon a sea of malice and turbulent change so that it might reach another unknown dreamer who could embrace it? Such was the nature of the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. He cast a dream of unconditional brotherly love into a maelstrom of hate, praying that the seeds might take root on some unknown shore.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American pastor, a man of God, and an activist for equal rights during arguably the most turbulent times the country had known since the Civil War. From 1955 until his assassination in 1968 King advocated civil rights for people of color in the United Sates. There were others who chose a path of violence to redress wrongs, but King maintained nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience because his faith taught him that hatred cannot be cast out by hatred and violence is not the true answer to achieve enlightenment.
In his famous speech, I Have a Dream, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., King called for equality and denounced racism. He would repeat this message numerous times, each time with a passion for equality and justice, but with no hatred for those who disagreed with him and the equal rights movement.
“I have decided to stick to Love,” King said. “Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and though his voice was silenced, his dream did not die. There are still those who echo his desire for equality and justice, who choose peace instead of violence, and who hope that people, regardless of race, can be better. The country celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on the third Monday in January each year. It is a Federal Holiday and is the only such holiday celebrated for a non-president.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
