We Remember Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It's fitting that the eve of a historical inauguration falls on Martin Luther King Day. Today we celebrate a man who spent his life spreading the message of racial equality. I think we all take for granted the liberties we enjoy now that seemed like a distant dream 40 years ago. During my pastor's message yesterday, she spent time reciting the majority of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. These two passages struck a chord with me:

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood..."
"...I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

At that particular moment, I thought about how fortunate I am to freely hang with my white friends and not be ridiculed, beaten, lynched, etc for doing so. To think that I'd miss out on having great friends due to my skin color seems absurd, but that was the reality of so many back then. Can you imagine going to a concert and having to sit in the "whites only" or "colored only" section? Or going to use a water fountain labeled "whites only" or "colored only"? It's those little freedoms we now enjoy that many of us just don't give a second thought to.

So on today, we honor Dr. King's memory and I for one thank him for his tireless crusade against civil injustices and his fight for equality. I leave you with this final quote from MLK's famous speech:

"And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"