Clearly, Americans of 2009 are far more inclined than Americans of 1929 or 1968 to heed the Rev. King’s call that we judge others not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Yet that positive outcome was far from assured during his time. Less than a half century ago, cruel racism and the long-simmering resentments it fueled threatened to tear apart our nation.
Thanks to the Rev. King, though, our nation was forced to take a hard look at itself and make necessary transformations. Ultimately, his call for overdue fairness and cooperative understanding prevailed through peaceful, yet morally overwhelming, persuasion.
But this warning he issued to all people bears repeating: “Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”
Read it all.
Local Newspaper Editorial: King's transforming legacy
Clearly, Americans of 2009 are far more inclined than Americans of 1929 or 1968 to heed the Rev. King’s call that we judge others not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Yet that positive outcome was far from assured during his time. Less than a half century ago, cruel racism and the long-simmering resentments it fueled threatened to tear apart our nation.
Thanks to the Rev. King, though, our nation was forced to take a hard look at itself and make necessary transformations. Ultimately, his call for overdue fairness and cooperative understanding prevailed through peaceful, yet morally overwhelming, persuasion.
But this warning he issued to all people bears repeating: “Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”
Read it all.