IN COMMEMORATION: Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday
January 15, 2010
In the book, Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation by Rosa Parks, she shared several examples of people who served as role models. One was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She recalled:
"Martin Luther King Jr. set a profound example for me in day-to-day living. He was such a young man---just twenty-six years old---when I first met him at the beginning of the bus boycott. I was forty-two.
I'll always remember the way Dr. King would respond to violence. He would use the same words that Jesus said on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Brutality was to be received with love, he would say. Though I knew we needed to strive for nonviolence, when I saw the brutal treatment some of us got, I had trouble believing it was always the best thing to do.
Dr. King was a true leader. I never sensed fear in him. I just felt as though he knew what had to be done and took the leading role without regard to consequences. I knew he was destined to do great things. He had an elegance about him and a speaking style that let you know where you stood and inspired you to do the best you could. He truly is a role model for us all. The sacrifice of his life should never be forgotten, and his dream live on."
IN COMMEMORATION...
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident that all
men are created equal.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - August 1963
What example do you set for others by your day-to-day leadership?
Photo: Academy of Achievement
Warm wishes to you all...
Debbe
Home of Women in the Lead
www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership
and High Performance
Twitter @debbekennedy
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