Nation Honors MLK Jr.’s Memory & Achievements

The likeness of Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges from carved stone,
as viewed from streetside on a November day  in 2011.

One of the best and most balanced tributes to the life and times of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the one which I first read last Thursday in the print edition of the Courier News.

Tucked away on page B6 under Matters of Faith was a column entitled “Move beyond race wars,” written by the Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr., a well-known personage in Somerset County and beyond.  (He is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens.)

In his piece, Soaries revealed an admirable trait which, I believe was also shared by MLK, Jr. – that is, the ability to seek peaceful, yet, if necessary, forceful solutions to some of the most obdurate problems which America has faced.

A gathering of Martin Luther King, Jr. admirers look up at his figure,
with the Jefferson Memorial in the background.

Using the example of the response of the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team and its Coach to the uproar caused by remarks made on the radio by Don Imus, Soaries writes

“… What had become a global news story about a racial incident was not allowed to grow into a contentious race war.”

“Instead, the young ladies at Rutgers and their coaches demonstrated what Martin Luther King, Jr. fought to accomplish – that we were capable of developing methods to move beyond ignorance, hatred and injustice, and elevate the quality of our relationships, in spite of incidents like these.”

Soaries is a bright light, and we are fortunate to have him in our area to remind us of how to penetrate the darkness.  I admire this man’s attitude toward the human character and condition.

One of the many sayings attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.,
inscribed on one of the four carved pillars of the memorial.

He continues with, “We should assume that people will make mistakes . . . We must call a truce to the race war . . . If we do not, we will only have more collateral damage.”

Yet the man is not a fool.  He knows that evil lurks out there and that it needs to be confronted, but in the right way, as he emphasizes, “We must allow the appropriate agencies to respond when there is a suspicion of bias or injustice.”

There can be no peace without justice, and no real justice without peace.  Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that well and fought the hard fight to achieve that goal.  This can be a dangerous endeavor, yet the man succeeded while paying a dear price.

We do well to honor him today.

Thanks for reading.  

(Blogger’s note:  Click on any image for an enhanced view.)