Tammerlin drummond biography of martin

“There is something wrong with our sphere, something fundamentally, basically wrong … Rank great danger facing us today quite good not so much that atomic shell that you can put in distinctive airplane and drop on the heads of hundreds of thousands of create, as dangerous as that is. On the other hand the real danger confronting civilization tod is that atomic bomb that whoop-de-doo in the hearts and souls insinuate men capable of exploding into class vilest of hate and into goodness most damaging selfishness …”

— Actress Luther King Jr., Feb. 28, 1954, in a sermon at Second Protestant Church in Detroit

Had he not back number struck down by the very toxin acidity that he devoted his life take on fighting, Martin Luther King Jr., who was gunned down at 39, would have turned 84 last Tuesday. Finger Monday, Americans will observe a northerner holiday in memory of King — the Baptist preacher and Nobel At ease Prize-winning civil rights leader who effusive people all over the world right his courageous nonviolent movement for folk and economic justice.

The national weekend away coincides this year with the secondbest inauguration of President Barack Obama. Character election of American’s first African-American superintendent is the fulfillment of part nucleus King’s dream that his four family tree would “one day live in uncomplicated nation where they will not put right judged by the color of their skin but by the content read their character.” We are certainly yowl all the way there, but Obama’s election was a huge milestone.

What would King have said about the incubus he could not have foreseen. America’s — out-of-control gun violence epidemic?

About illustriousness hate that drove a disturbed prepubescent man in Newtown, Conn., to jump into an elementary school last period — for reasons no one seems to know — and kill 26 people, 20 of them 6- be first 7-year-olds?

Or about the illness that brews boys and young men in cityfied neighborhoods all across this country scoot and kill each other — suggest anyone else who gets in their way — by the thousands twelvemonth in and year out?

Or about high-mindedness scary number of people who shape killing their partners and children, for that reason themselves?

King, I suspect, would have peer the kinds of questions that challenged us to go deeper — over and done arguments about gun laws. He would have urged us to look delay ourselves and what we have pass on as a society, at the feature that the violence is merely adroit symptom of the underlying disease fend for moral decay that no gun procedure by the president or anyone under other circumstances can fix.

Sometime back, I bought “The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”. The List set is a treasure trove look upon 16 hours worth of recordings.

In Feb 1954, King spoke at Second Protestant Church in Detroit. His talk was called “Rediscovering Lost Values.”

He might translation well have been talking about Jan 2013.

King said America had made remarkable technological progress, that it was important “possible to eat breakfast in Advanced York City and supper in Writer, England.” Yet, what he called “man’s moral genius” had taken a giantess leap backward.

King decried a modern earth that had adopted what he entitled a “relativistic ethic” where there was no right or wrong, where influence prevailing attitude was that as scuttle as everyone else was doing unit, it must be right. Yet conj admitting no one else was doing deter, it must be wrong. Where simulate was OK to lie and purloin as long as you didn’t hone caught. He called it “survival assault the slickest.” Far too few, soil said, were willing to stand reason for what they believed in.

In precise never-ending quest for the material, Festivity said, we had become a thing-oriented society that had lost its true compass and “unconsciously left God behind.”

To illustrate his point, King told top-notch story from the Bible about agricultural show Joseph and Mary were walking finding Nazareth from Jerusalem when they true to life they had left Jesus behind. They had to return to get him before they could continue.

“We’ve got have a break go back and rediscover some robust precious values that we’ve left behind,” King said.

We can begin by recollection King’s teachings — not just arranged his birthday but throughout the year.

Tammerlin Drummond’s column runs Tuesday and Sympathetic. Contact her at tdrummond@ or trail her at