January
16, 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Observance
“World peace
through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable.
All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence
is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method
can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the
voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set
a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built."
--Martin
Luther King, Jr., December 1964
Martin Luther King Jr.,
was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. A civil-rights
leader and international hero, King is one of the 20th Century’s
most visible advocates of non-violence and direct action as methods
of social change.
Inspired by Gandhi’s achievements
through non-violent resistance, King played a vital role in achieving
significant gains for humanity ranging from the desegregation
of schools and other public facilities to the acceleration of
civil rights as a government priority.
Martin Luther King delivered one of the
most passionate addresses of his career, his “I Have a Dream” speech on
August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Later in 1963, King was designated Person of the Year by TIME Magazine.
In 1964, at the age of 35, King was awarded
a Nobel Peace Prize for his unyielding efforts. In his address, King spoke of war
and nuclear destruction:
"I refuse to accept the cynical
notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic
stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation... I believe
that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there
is still hope for a brighter tomorrow... I still believe that
one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned
triumphant over war and bloodshed."
In his speech “Remaining
Awake Through a Great Revolution,” delivered
at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, on March 31, 1968,
King stated:
"It is no longer a choice, my
friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence
or nonexistence. And the alternative to disarmament, the alternative
to a greater suspension of nuclear tests, the alternative to
strengthening the United Nations and thereby disarming the whole
world, may well be a civilization plunged into the abyss of
annihilation, and our earthly habitat would be transformed into
an inferno that even the mind of Dante could not imagine.”
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