"Early morning, April 4 shot rings out in the Memphis sky. Free at last, they took your life. They could not take your pride."
It was on this day back in 1968 that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by an assassin's bullet. Here was a man who made the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that he believed in. A cause that would change the history of this country.
When I look back in time, I am amazed about people like Dr. King, Robert F. Kennedy, John Kennedy, Gandhi, and so many others who paid the ultimate price for what they believed in. These people who gave the weak and the oppressed a voice. People who gave so much to make the world better. I wonder how much more they would have given and what direction this country and the world would have gone in had they lived longer and not died so tragically.
Had Robert Kennedy not been killed in 1968, he just may have won the Presidency later that year. Would Vietnam have ended sooner? How many of the 56,000 that died in Vietnam would have lived and where would they be now? Watergate would have never happened, the whole direction and history of our nation would have been different.
Had John Lennon not been murdered in 1980 how many more great pieces of work would he have given us?
It makes you wonder doesn't it? My question for all of you today is....what cause or belief would you pay the ultimate price for?
5 comments:
Wow. That's a hard question. I really don't know if I have conviction in anything that is strong enough to die for it. Which is kinda sad.
It seems like those that have gone before us has set us up pretty well, and I think we all take that for granted, like the women's movement and civil rights. I think we should all stop, think about how good we have it and do more good for those that go without.
Thanks for getting me to think this morning!
I show the "I Have A Dream Speech" to my students each year. I get a chill each and every time I hear it.
Ack! I think I'm too chicken shit to give everything for anything. But what I have the most passion about is animals.
I'm with Mon about the animals although I don't think I have it in me to pay the "ultimate price" for anything. If I had a child I would though. I know how I am when it comes to an innocent life. If I'm a nut with my dog I would be a "total" nut with a child.
As William Wallace (a/k/a Mel) said, FREEDOM :) I bitch and moan about this country a lot, but we really are lucky to have all that we do, if only everyone took the time to appreciate what they have, and to help others who don't have so much, imagine what the world would be like.
I have the utmost respect for Dr. King, I'm so sorry he's gone :(
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