MLK Day

MLK Day is here, and I rarely notice it come and go.  But for some reason I’ve been more compelled to study a little of what the man said this year.  I’ve found myself going over the letter he wrote in Birmingham prison mostly, and I find his passion so compelling, that I wonder how southern white pastors could not be persuaded to his cause.

But to be fair, I am looking through the lense of history.

Also, I got to thinking about what my passion will be.  It has been said that our generation will have had no great war, and lived in relative comfort compared to all that have come before us.  Makes me think that I could go through most of my life without a call to any great action, nothing truely worthy to be passionate about.  That generally depresses me.

Of course there is always stuff to be passionate about, great injustices are taking place all over the world, I just wonder if I’m called to leave the US ever.  I don’t really feel like I am right now, but who knows what the future holds.
It also makes me think about whether or not I would have been interested in the civil rights movement if I was alive at the time.  When faced with an opportunity to participate in something great, would I have declined for comfort reasons?  Who knows, I couldn’t say what it would have been like then.  I know my parents were too young to be very involved, but they remember it, and I know my whole family (at least on my Dad’s side) has always been vocal about similar issues during my life.

Well, enough of my meandering.  If you feel like reading something interesting, here is the online version of that letter.