Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King
In honor of Martin Luther King’s upcoming celebration, I am commenting on several of his quotes that mean a lot to me.
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., I am reminded of one aspect of him that is most compelling to me. Throughout his life, Dr. King warned us to refrain from keeping silent to speak up when we encounter injustice. Dr. King reminded us not to sit on the sidelines of life and watch injustice; rather we need to speak out and consciously push back against it.
All too often, we complain about injustice and prejudice; we watch as the rights of others are trampled or erased but we choose to remain silent. One of Dr. King’s most profound statements, He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it? Look today at the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal how many around him at Penn State, knew but didn’t speak out. Sometimes we refrain from speaking out because we assume that speaking out means protesting with signs or acts of civil disobedience. At Penn State, speaking out would have changed history for a number of young boys.
