(Photo Santi Visalli / Getty)
The March for Our Lives students are presently receiving death threats and profanity-laced tirades, from so-called adults, for their campaign against American gun violence. However – between pop quizzes and learning how to drive – they’re undeterred.
Someone else experienced a similar backlash for his activism. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached nonviolence to end segregation, poverty, and war. He was ridiculed, threatened, jailed, beaten, and ultimately assassinated… 50 years ago today.
In a speech at Stanford University on April 14, 1967 (known as “The Other America” speech), he said something that could be equally applicable to today’s debate over gun control laws:
Although it may be true that morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. Even though it may be true that the law cannot change the heart, it can restrain the heartless. Even though it may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, it can restrain him from (killing) me… And so while the law may not change the hearts of men, it can and does change the habits of men.
King followed this by observing that, once habits change, attitudes and hearts will follow suit. Based on the behavior of many of our current (elected) leaders, history has yet to render a verdict on this.
On this dark anniversary, it’s good to remember we had a leader of integrity, who was also unafraid to dream.
(To hear King, click the link above, and scroll to 30:00 for the quote)
(Photo Agence France Presse)
longitudes 
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