Monday; April 5

Fifty-three years ago, the nation was coming to grips with the shocking news that Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. In the early evening of April 4, 1968 Dr. King was shot to death at his motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This tragedy led to what ended up being an international manhunt for James Earl Ray who was arrested in June in London. Unfortunately, the death of Dr. King was just one event in a year that will be remembered as one of the darkest in U. S. history.
One of more notable things about Dr. King is his quotability. He could really string together words to make people think. One of my favorite quotes comes from 1963 when he observed, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”. As often as these words have been quoted you would think that we would have figured them out by now, but have you noticed how they haven’t seemed to make as big of an impact as we would have hoped? Too often when we find ourselves in disagreements – especially with those we feel are in error – we revert to name-calling, derogatory messages and vile comments. In essence, we meet their darkness with our nastiness. At other times, we confront bigotry and prejudice with viciousness and explain it away by saying you have to fight fire with fire. Yet, what would happen if, when we addressed issues, we did our best to build bridges rather than blow up the other group’s camp?

If the last fifty-three years have taught us anything else, maybe we should have learned that hope and illumination produce better results than hate and darkness. Let’s work together for answers and when we do, we are apt to fund unity.

Think About It!

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