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M.L. King Jr. held this nation to its promises

Martin Luther King Jr. is dead, martyred by an assassin’s bullet nearly five decades ago.

Long live the legacy of King.

King’s enduring legacy was on display Sunday on the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, when dozens of protesters marched the bridge opposing the effort by the new Congress to repeal a law bringing health care to all Americans, the centerpiece domestic achievement of outgoing President Barack Obama.

Obama, as well as millions of Americans during and after King’s life, plus countless millions more in the future, will continue to be inspired by his leadership and fidelity to the cause of liberty and justice for all.

Leading the civil rights movement through the wilderness of the 1960s, King used the power of nonviolent and truthful persuasion to change hearts and minds to embrace the better angels of our nature.

His tactic was soaring rhetoric with one primary objective: to hold this country to the values, promises and principles it claimed to have since its founding — for all the people, not just those of a certain skin color, gender, creed or status. He stated that objective in his “I Have a Dream” speech, one of rhetorical masterpieces of American history:

“When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent word of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. … (W)e have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

On behalf of all Americans, King was saying, “We just want what’s ours.”

He never ran for public office and backed away from the trappings of personal power, which proved to be a most dangerous way to lead. By working outside the system, he and his band of cohorts lacked the protection of the system and were subject to targeting by institutions within the system, notably the FBI, which did dig up some “dirt” on King, a human with flaws like all of us, and attempted to discredit him and the movement with the diversion.

To this day, some try to denigrate King’s legacy and others by this kind of smear, but that says more about the accuser’s true sentiments about justice and equality for all than it says about King.

By walking that dangerous walk, King’s march to greatness showed us all how anyone and everyone can make a difference, without being part of the powers that be. All it takes is action, to do what you can, even if it’s marching with signs on a frigid day in January on a bridge in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

This is why today we celebrate the only national holiday named after an American in the name of Martin Luther King Jr.

A Daily Mining Gazette editorial

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