Amongst Kings

I have come to have a greater appreciation of Martin Luther King, Jr.  His personal restraint and advocacy for nonviolence is amazing and inspring because it transcends time.  It would have been easier and frankly, justifiable to retaliate, but King (and his followers) looked beyond their personal brutalization and stayed focus on the purpose behind nonviolence - equal rights and equal treatment.  These ideals seem so common now, but during his life they were radical.  This notion shocked the national conscious.  This desire sparked rage.  This dream caused death.  How was it possible for black and white, men and women, to live as equal?

This radical idea and vision of America was not original to King.  Instead, it was that of Thomas Jefferson and the framers of the constitution, who cavalierly promised that America would be a place where "all men are created equal".  I say cavlierly promised because the drafters did not intend to enforce this bedrock principal of our democracy.  Instead, they allowed the bastardization of this progressive principal.

King through nonviolence made America examine the hypocrisy in its founding and forced our country to live up to its potential and honor its promise.  King was more than a dreamer.  He was a doer.