He had a dream

With it being the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s untimely death, I thought perhaps I'd write briefly to discuss him and how he has inspired so many people around the world.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

Evil people deserve no amount of fame or recognition so his killer need not be spoken about. I just want to quickly remind everyone what Martin Luther King stood for and what he was so passionate about.

On the 28th of August in 1963 about 250,000 people gathered and listened to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech when summed up his biggest goal and these words have gone down in history as some of the most well spoken and inspiring words ever to be put together:

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character".

He took such an amazing stance in his short life and became the cause of so many great waves of change to come. I hope he sees there has been significant improvements in our society since his death and I hope he is proud.

But there is still much change needed. Still, too often, people fall back on the color of his skin or her skin of their own skin as the reason for how to behave. How irresponsible and conceited that is. Paint me purple or blue or green and I will still treat each of you just as I would wish you to treat me. There are no "ifs" or "buts" about it, exceptions do NOT exist in my world.

We are ONE race. We are the HUMAN race.

Labels: Martin Luther King Jr