40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. He was one of the most influential non-violent leaders in the past 50 years. King was a man well ahead of his time. While we all know of his "I have a Dream" speech, he was so much more than that. He was a Christian man, but not a Christian elitist. He saw how much people from other religions could offer those within Christianity. He sought out Gandhi and was willing to learn from him. He did not seek him out to "save his soul." I don't know his thoughts on sexuality, but he was open to being friends with and learning from openly homosexual people. Bayard Rustin, who also studied under Gandhi, was one of King's counselors throughout his early activist years.

I think today's society needs to take another look at one of it's fallen heroes and try again to live a loving non-violent life. The strides made in Civil Rights since King died 40 years ago have been tremendous, but they are nowhere near what they should be or what King had envisioned. We are still a nation at war, spending our money on creating enemies and distrust instead of the development of humankind. I'm sure there are things King and I wouldn't agree on, but I do know that we would never raise a hand to each other.

Please, wherever you are, however you are living your life, stop the hate. As MLK said "The time is always right to do what is right."

Start today