Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 17 January 2002 — Page 2

The Muncie Times, January 17, 2002, page 2

EDITORIAL

Dr. Kings dream of equality must never die

The theme for this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day birthday celebration, as it has been for the past few years, emphasizes that this should be a day of service, rather than just another day off from work, school or other chores and obligations. The simple message behind it is that we should not view this as just another holiday, like many other federallymandated occasions. Many times we take public holidays as opportunities to stay home from work or school, sleep in late and generally take it easy at home. The folks at the King Center in Atlanta want this year’s Jan. 21 celebration to be special. They are encouraging all of us to go out and do good things, m the spirit of Dr. King and what he stood for. They

want us to be involved in trying to improve our communities. They do not want Dr. King’s birthday to be just another day away from our routines. They want this to be a meaningful holiday where people do good things in trying to bring about the full realization of his dream. It is a concept and an idea that we fully endorse. The United States of America is a rainbow country that has people from many colors, ethnicities and countries around the world. In his abbreviated life, which was ended by an assassin’s cruel bullet almost 34 years ago, Dr. King had preached nonviolence and racial reconciliation. He lived and died while trying to improve all our lives and

trying to teach us that whether we were black, brown, yellow or any other hue, under the skin we were alike and we shared a common humanity. Those who feared his message of racial and spiritual reconciliation prematurely ended his ife. They killed the man, rut they did not kill what le stood for. That’s why it is important to continue the work that he started, the dream that he had, the walk he foretold to the Promised Land. It would be a betrayal of everything Dr. King campaigned for, stood for and died for. We cannot afford to fail to see that dream belatedly realized, without putting this country’s future at risk. Dr. King, despite all the obstacles and harassment

he faced, dared dream of a day when this country would not no longer face racial and ethnic divides. So we have an obligation to see his dream fulfilled, by continuing the work he started. We cannot afford to fail because the consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate. So on Jan. 21, it is important to stop whatever we are doing and spend at least a few minutes thinking about the kind of society that Dr. King hoped would one day emerge in the United States. We should think about what we can do to bring that about. We should rededicate ourselves to promoting that trip to the Promised Land. The time must surely come when we will cease, in Dr. King’s immortal words, to judge

a person by the color of his/her skin but by the content of his/her character. That is what the King Center is promoting; that we take advantage not only of Jan. 21 but also of every day of the year to work relentlessly toward the promotion of a qualitatively better America, the one that Dr. King talked about when he said he had been to the top of the mountain and had seen the Promised Land. That is the message we should be passing out next week. Tb do less would be a gross betrayal to the dream of the man who tried so hard to try and make this a better country and a better world. We cannot afford to do less. Neither can this country, if it wants to be all it can be.

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MUNCIE TIMES STAFF

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Contributors: Bea Moten-Foster, Bernice Powell-Jackson, Dr. T.S. Kumbula, John Lambkun, Judy Mays and Hugh Price. The Muncie Times is published twice monthly at 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, Ind. 47303. It covers the communities of Anderson, Marion, New Castle, Richmond, and Muncie. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, The Muncie Times, 1304 N. Broadway, Muncie, IN 47303. Telephone (765) 741-0037. Fax (765) 741-0040.

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