Martin Luther King

Happy 83rd birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.!!!
On Jan. 15, 1929, MLK sprung into this world.
The profundity of that birth correlates with the birth in Bethlehem. A very insignificant event to their respective parents, but their historical and spiritual legacies transcend most of the others who've ever traversed this Earth.
Martin Luther King was accused of urging others to do things that he did not do. Some self-righteously proclaimed that Dr. King didn't spend enough time in jail.
So, on April 16, 1963, Dr. King wrote an essay in the form of an open letter while serving a jail sentence for participating in civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Ala.
Eight prominent "liberal" Alabama clergymen published an open letter which called on King to allow the battle for integration to be engaged in local and federal courts. They warned that King's nonviolent resistance would have the effect of inciting civil disturbances.
Dr. King desired Christian ministers to see that the meaning of Christian discipleship was at the heart of the African American struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
So, he penned "Letter from a Birmingham jail."
"The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to get them out. So let him march sometime; understand why he must have sit-ins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history. So I have not said to my people "get rid of your discontent." But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channelized through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist.
"Was not Jesus an extremist in love -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despisefully use you."
"Was not Amos an extremist for justice -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
"Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."
"Was not Martin Luther an extremist -- "Here I stand; I can do none other so help me God."
"Was not Abraham Lincon an extremist -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free."
"Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equally."
"Will we be extremist for hate or love?
"Will we be extremist for injustice or justice?
"In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill, three men were crucified. We must not forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thusly fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. So, after all, maybe the South, the nation and world are in dire need of creative extremists."
In Dr. King's most dramatic speach "I Have a Dream" he eloquently delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, before the Lincoln Memorial he orated:
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
"This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with.
"With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
"With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
"Let freedom ring..."
I have a dream, too, in the same spirit of those homeless people in Northwest Arkansas who are despised by many as being worthless bums who don't want to work for a living and they deserve to sleep in tents and God is punishing them for not participating in the Great American Dream of wealth and prosperity with the proper work ethic as a reward for a decent place to lay one's head and not have to sleep out in the cold, that there be a caring spirit which will discern these people deserve a homeless shelter!!
I don't pretend to be a spiritual mentor with the eloquence of Dr. King. But I hope I can enlighten others to get angry enough to unite and set these people free from the bondages of houselessness.
Let freedom ring for the less fortunate to be more respected. Keep the faith my homeless brethren!!
Like the Negro spiritual, "We Shall Overcome."