So true — you can kill the dreamer, but not the dream
April 4, 2008 by Lynda Jensen, Editor
Filed under General
Forty years ago, I was two days old. This was the day that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Dr. King was a Baptist pastor who accomplished so much, through peaceful means, during turbulent times for our country. Nevertheless, we must remember — as was said tonight during an interview with one of Dr. King’s friends “You can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream.” Let that be so.
Here are some quotes from Dr. King worth repeating:
“A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.”
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
I don’t remember much about the day that King was killed, but I do remember the riots afterward. I spent spring break with my aunt and uncle in Kansas City, MO. During the night, the downtown area was filled with rioters and looters. The following day, we drove somewhere in the city. When we came over a hilltop we saw Army National Guardsmen posted on the rooftops of the buildings. It was an awesome sight. Later the next night my uncle laid out his shotgun on an easy chair next to the front door. I guess he thought the rioters would come all the way out to the suburbs, despite all those armed guardsman keeping the peace. To this day, I think burning down your neighborhood grocery store is an idiotic response to injustice. All the rioters did was hurt themselves, their families and communities.