Martin Luther King Jr.

Dream. What is the first thing you think of when you hear that? Is it something to do with its actual meaning, 'a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.'? But in Martin Luther King Jr's speech, it meant so much more. 'Dream' in his mind was an achievement that he worked towards. 'Dream' was a belief within him that brought out a strong realization for most, leading him to say one of the most remembered phrases of all time, "I have a dream..." As I think of that dream I remember what it means to all of us, what he means to all of us.

Today, I will be introducing one of the most influentail visionaries of all time, Martin Luther King Jr. I'll tell you of his achievements, the courage it takes to be one of the most prolific equal rights activists of all time, and his undying compassion for what he does.

When Michael, later changed to Martin, Luther King Jr was born, he already was being bought up in a segregated community in Georiga. But, overcoming all of that wasn't a big problem for Martin. He was a very smart boy. He graduated from high school at the age of fifteen, and went on to Morehouse College, following his father's and grandfather's footsteps. For three years he went to Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, where he learned many of his speaking skills he would use in the future. He was the pastor of two churches and a member of the executive committee for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He even published five books, the first of them being "Stride Toward Freedom". I'll always remember that one, because when he was promoting it, he was stabbed.

It takes a lot to stand up alone when everyone's against you isn't it? That's just what Martin does. His courage leads him in the right path. Courage can be a good or bad thing. In some people's case, courage becomes cockiness. In his, for the most part, it was just pure courage. He stands up for what he believes is right, no matter what. Remembering back in '57, when he was arrested, subjected to personal abuse, and his house was even bombed by a group of whites during the bus boycott of 1956, I think about that courage. With this never-ending courage, he'd still managed to come out as a leader in the first rank. With his courage, maybe even a little too much, he was arrested over twenty times, standing up for what he knew was right. Once being a time when he was going 30 mph in a 25 mile zone. I mean really...come on. His courage led him to go back to college and graduate with a Ph.D. when he was twenty-six.

Compassion is