Forty years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, a great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. He died fighting to bring an end to racial hatred and bigotry. He shed his blood so that America’s heart and soul could be washed clean and so we could have a future free of the evil of racial hatred.

The question facing us today is whether Dr. King’s sacrifice was sufficient to accomplish his goals? Has our great nation moved fast and far enough down King’s road of racial harmony, forgiveness and peace?  Was Dr. King’s death at the hands of an assassin not only untimely … was it also in vain?  

As the torch of freedom and brotherly love tumbled from his hands, did those who caught it lift it high and preserve its awesome powers? Were those hands prepared to take America from the valley of the shadow of King’s death through to the Promised Land? Were theirs the hands King was talking about when he said, “… we (Americans), as a people will get to the Promised Land … Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Dr. King believed that those coming after him must, “forever conduct (their) struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline … many of our white brothers … have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom … So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow …  

“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day, right here in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers … 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 was Dr. King’s dream for America. Notice that the word “victimization” was foreign to his vocabulary … But some of those hands, black and white, who caught his falling torch, had a different dream from his. Perhaps that is why among us there are still some today who hate and who encourage racial abhorrence.

Contrary to the example and legacy of Dr. King, these abhorrents damn our country with unforgiven racial grievances, hatred and disrespect.  King, were he here now, would still glory in leading Americans of all colors to the Promised Land through strength of family, self-respect, dedication and hard work. He would bravely lead us across the Jordan to “first class citizenship” for all. And he would weep at the words of hatred and contempt, which Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with Senator and Mrs. Obama’s willing acquiescence, has spewed from his pulpit for more than twenty years.

My wife Charlene and I were both born into black church families. We grew up attending the black church where we were married. Over the years we have attended many different black churches and we have never once heard spoken from a pulpit such hateful, foul and vulgar language as that which Rev. Wright has used.   

The black Americans Charlene and I know, admire, worship, and socialize with are patriotic, hard-working and full of decency, love and respect for their country and their fellow Americans whether they be black, white, brown or yellow. They are the kind of people that Dr. King would have been proud to call his brothers. They would never condone nor tolerate -- for an instant -- Rev. Wright’s kind of speech.  

To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln, it is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which Dr. King so nobly advanced ... to be faithful to the great task remaining before us … to highly resolve that Dr. King shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of racial freedom and harmony.