Martin Luther King Jr Day

I didn't get out of work today because of the holiday, but that's OK. Rather, I get to experience diversity at work everyday thanks to the work of this man. I've commented on diversity at work before, and Melissa has mentioned it as well.

Today, what can we learn from the struggle of 30+ years ago, here in a mostly white, wealthy suburb? I think today, we must work to break the cycle of poverty for minorities and others stuck 'at the bottom'. The race that is most discriminated against now is the Hispanic immigrant, and aid to help their plight and understand their situation is our next step. That's the way I see it, anyway.

ON NONCOMFORMITY (1963):

"This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless Calvaries. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."

ON PEACE (1964):

"Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."

Incidentally, last year's Martin Luther King Jr Day post got noticed by the Muncie Free Press as an East-Central Indiana view on racism.