Editorial

Recent history adds luster to King's legacy

Monday, January 21, 2008

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is little more than a day off for most of us in the High Plains, a day of inconvenience without banking or postal service.

But we shouldn't let the haze of history obscure the accomplishment of a great civil rights leader.

Whatever our heritage, it seems incredible that King and his cohort had to work so long and so hard for rights most of us take for granted, such as voting rights and other aspects of equality.

We won't be so naive as to suggest that there aren't still shortcomings in our society, or that Dr. King was without his faults, but the light of current history lends new perspective on his accomplishments.

Yes, the struggle for civil rights in the '60s sometimes turned violent, but Martin Luther King Jr. was notable for his dedication to nonviolent change, in the tradition of Mohandas Ghandi and others.

Contrasted with those who kill themselves and thousands of others in the name of change, however, Dr. King's legacy shines all the more brightly.

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