40 Years

Earlier this week I stopped into the Languages office at UVSC to say hi to the 2 secretaries that work there. I was wearing my Barack Obama shirt and conversation ensued.
Carol, who was born somewhere in the 1950s and grew up in Virginia, told me about what it was like to be in school when integration occurred. She talked about how she watched Dr. King's famous speech at the Mall live on television and how she was so completely moved by his charisma and the words he spoke. (The link here is that she said Senator Obama's oratory skill reminded her of MLK.)
Anyway, she talked about the influence the Dr. King had on her when she was young, his words as well as the social equality movement that surrounded him. Then she made a statement that I thought very amazing. Said she, "You know, when I was sixteen I realized that if you believed in the gospel, you couldn't be racist." Thinking about where she grew up, what she insinuated she was surrounded with and the fact that she was in the middle of school integration, I was struck by her strength as a 16 year old.
This reinforced to me the power of words, how words can inspire us to be better, can lead our hearts to change. Which leads me contemplatively into Conference weekend...

So on this 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., I salute those who have said words that have caused great change in the souls of men. And I salute those who have had the courage to follow these inspiring charges to better ourselves.

"I Have a Dream"



Forgiveness, President Hinckley, October '05.

President Hinckley's testimony of the Risen Lord


Robert F. Kennedy announcing MLK's murder to a crowd gathered in Indianapolis

"There were riots in more than 100 cities across America after King's death. But that night, there was calm in Indianapolis."

John F. Kennedy's speech in Berlin


Walter Cronkite's report of the MLK assassination in CBS Evening News