He explained his reason for hope this way: “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
But he believed, as Gandhi did, that in matters of conscience the law of the majority has no place. And like Gandhi, he chose the path of nonviolence. Which is wonderful in theory but less attractive in the face of fire hoses and attack dogs, bullets and bombs. Yet he never wavered, sticking to his credo that nonviolence is “a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
Dr. King said he had the “audacity to believe” in dignity, equality, and freedom for everyone. This week, the man who’ll be standing on the steps of the Capitol, repeating the oath of office, has some audacity of his own. He describes it this way:
It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!
The clock of destiny that Martin Luther King often spoke of will chime on Tuesday. And it will be a welcome sound.
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Back on our topic, the excellent Securities Docket has information about a January 28, 2009, webcast on “game-changing developments in 2008 in the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” Check it out here.
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