For MLK Day: Be The Change You Seek
A letter to my children
by Rod D. Martin
January 17, 2022
Kids, today is Martin Luther King Day.
You are probably too young to remember, but creating an MLK Day was very contentious at the time. This was partly true because King’s birthday and Robert E. Lee’s birthday (and holiday) fall on the same day, and this raised hackles (and by no means only racist ones) in many parts of the country in exactly the same way removing statues does now.
But celebrating King is right. He was very flawed in many ways. But it’s worth remembering that he was also very, very young, thrust into the limelight by his great giftedness before his personal and spiritual maturity had a chance to catch up; and it’s also worth remembering that in that, he was no different than other mighty yet flawed men of God such as Jephthah and Samson. If God did not use earthen vessels, there would indeed be no hope for any of us.
King taught a message of belief in America, of calling it to its promise, and of the genuine brotherhood of man, a message now entirely lost by those who claim to be his heirs. That loss is tragic and is tearing America apart.
We should preserve what he proclaimed.
Below I am copying for you the (brief) “I Have a Dream” speech for which he is best known. Take a moment to re-read it, to reflect on how close we’ve come and how much has in a few short years been lost. And be the change you seek.
Dad
