Page 5 - ARUBA TODAY

A5
U.S. NEWS Monday 15 January 2018

King’s words still inspire nearly 50 years after his death

By JEFF MARTIN mean for today’s world. um in Memphis, at the site world we live in today. You
ADRIAN SAINZ Some were interviewed in of the old Lorraine Motel. can’t fight violence with
Associated Press Atlanta, home to King’s Eb- “So, Dr. King reminds us that violence,” said Mike Con-
ATLANTA (AP) — Though his enezer Baptist Church con- it is usually through love — ley, a guard for the Mem-
voice was silenced nearly gregation and his office actionable love — that we phis Grizzlies of the National
50 years ago, the Rev. Mar- where Xernona Clayton are able to make change.” Basketball Association.
tin Luther King Jr.’s mes-
sage of nonviolence still
resonates and inspires.
Decades ago, the famed
civil rights leader - also re-
garded as one of Ameri-
ca’s greatest orators - re-
called driving one night
from Atlanta to Chatta-
nooga, Tennessee, with his
brother A.D. at the wheel.
Most cars in the opposite
lane failed to dim their
lights, and his brother angri-
ly vowed to keep his bright
lights on in retaliation.
“And I looked at him right
quick and said: ‘Oh no,
don’t do that. There’d
be too much light on this
highway, and it will end
up in mutual destruction
for all. Somebody got to
have some sense on this In this Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018 photo, the Rev. Raphael Warnock stands in the sanctuary of Ebenezer
highway,’” King told the Baptist Church in Atlanta. Warnock is senior pastor of the congregation once led by the Rev. Martin
congregation at the Dex- Luther King Jr.
ter Avenue Baptist Church (AP Photo/Jeff Martin)
in Montgomery, Alabama
during a 1957 sermon. “When people come and
“Somebody must have want to inflict hurt on some-
sense enough to dim the body, you can’t come
lights, and that is the trou- back and do the same to
ble, isn’t it?” King told the them,” Conley said. “Oth-
congregation. “That as all erwise, we’re in this never-
of the civilizations of the ending spiral that we’re in
world move up the high- the middle of right now.”
way of history, so many “This is a time of moral reck-
civilizations, having looked oning in our nation. We
at other civilizations that re- must choose to stand on
fused to dim the lights, and the side of light and love,”
they decided to refuse to said the Rev. Raphael War-
dim theirs.” nock, senior pastor of Eb-
More than a half-century enezer Baptist Church in
later, in a world full of con- Atlanta.
tentious politics, one of “We have to stand up as
King’s memorable quotes National Civil Rights Museum President Terri Lee Freeman stands Americans and say that
remains relevant. It’s from in front of the balcony of the old Lorraine Motel in Memphis, we will stand on behalf of
his book “Strength to Love,” Tenn., Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018, where Martin Luther King Jr. was the poor, the marginal-
first published in 1963: fatally shot. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz) ized, those who experience
“Returning hate for hate discrimination both histori-
multiplies hate, adding organized protest march- “In order to fulfill a dream, cally, and presently,” he
deeper darkness to a night es and fundraisers. Others it’s going to take a team added. “This is our time, this
already devoid of stars. reflected on the quote in that’s going to demon- is our moment to decide
Darkness cannot drive out Memphis, in front of the Lor- strate love and not hate,” what kind of nation we
darkness; only light can do raine Motel balcony where Cleophus Smith said. want to be.”
that. Hate cannot drive out King was assassinated on Smith was one of the sani- “Dr. King really hated no
hate; only love can do that. April 4, 1968. tation workers who went on one. He loved everyone,
Hate multiplies hate, vio- “When he says ‘hate can- strike in 1968 after two of his he really did. He practiced
lence multiplies violence, not drive out hate, only co-workers were killed by it, and he preached it.
and toughness multiplies light can do that,’ it recog- a malfunctioning garbage “So when he talks about
toughness in a descending nizes that to be bitter about truck. King was in Memphis what hate does versus
spiral of destruction.” your circumstance is one supporting the sanitation what love does, it’s so ap-
The AP asked a half-dozen thing. To retaliate based on workers’ strike when he was plicable to today,” she
people in the cities where your circumstance is quite slain at the Lorraine Motel. said. “We have to drive out
he was born and where he another,” said Terri Lee “You think about the grand hate any way we can. We
died to consider his words Freeman, president of the scheme of things, you can’t have to strengthen love
and talk about what they National Civil Rights Muse- fight hate with hate in the any way we can.”q