King’s words are worth more than 1,000 pictures

JEFF KEATING

That Martin Luther King Jr. sure had a way with words.

Yes, that’s an understatement, on a grand scale. King’s mastery of

image, of cadence, of metaphor is well and widely known. “I Have a

Dream” -- which appears in full on today’s Forum page -- by itself

would be a complete legacy to the civil rights leader’s speechwriting

and oratory skills.

But King’s body of work runs much deeper, and touches on many

themes, though civil rights and simple justice are what he almost

always came back to.

Last Thursday would have been King’s 75th birthday, and as a

tribute we offer a sampling of some of his other speeches and quotes

-- those less known than “I Have a Dream.”

Upon accepting his Nobel Prize for Peace on Dec. 10, 1964, in

Oslo:

“I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an

audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair

as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to

accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him

morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that

forever confronts him.

“I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam

in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which

surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so

tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the

bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

“I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation

must spiral down a militaristic stairway ... I believe that unarmed

truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil

triumphant.

“I believe that even amid today’s motor bursts and whining

bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that

wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our

nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among

the children of men.”

On pride in oneself and on a job well done:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep

streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or

Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all

the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great

street sweeper who did his job well.”

On recognizing and respecting diversity in society:

“There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society, with a

large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no

stake in it, who feel that they have nothing to lose. People who have

a stake in their society protect that society, but when they don’t

have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

On loving your enemies, from a sermon given on Nov. 17, 1957, at

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Ala.:

“There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that

is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually

think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals

hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even

more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates.

“You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do

irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t

stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic

than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes

to the point that he becomes a pathological case.

“For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person, and

that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the

person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes

beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad

becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and

the false becomes true.

“That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of

objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the

personality of the hater....

“When you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of

your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody.”

Quite a way with words, indeed.

* JEFF KEATING is editor of the News-Press and its sister

publication, the Burbank Leader. Reach him at 637-3234, or by e-mail

at jeff.keating@latimes.com.