MLK Day urges us to be better people

The nation and the attitudes that Martin Luther King Jr. sought to change have changed and generally for the better.
The civil rights movement brought together thousands in search of the assurance of basic human desires such as kindness, fairness, equality and justice.
Legislation and regulation has helped to rid America of hideous racial and class divisions. In our politically correct environment today, we are less likely to encounter outright bigotry — but a quieter form remains. It even may be more difficult to effectively attack the unspoken assaults of distrust and bias.
That’s why Monday’s holiday is so important. Raising the memory of the civil rights struggle and Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent form of disobedience helps annually refocus America on the most precious promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
To help challenge the mind and renew the spirit, here is a selection of quotes from Dr. King to consider as we mark what would have been his 82nd birthday. Reading his words truly challenges the content of our character.

• Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”
• Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
• Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
• It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
• Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
• Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.
• Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
• Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
• He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
• I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
• 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... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
• I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
• I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law.
• A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
• A right delayed is a right denied.
• All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
• All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
• An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
• At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
• Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
• Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
• I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
• Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
• If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
• In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

This editorial represents a consensus of The News-Enterprise editorial board.