On the occasion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I like to recall some of the admirable things he said and did during his extraordinary lifetime.
One of my favorite quotes is, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The philosopher Plato would have agreed with him completely.
On one occasion, in Harlem, an African-American woman tried to stab King in the chest. Fortunately the blade hit King’s breastbone, doing him little serious injury. But almost immediately one of King’s aides called out, “I’ll call the police.”
King turned to the aide and said, “No. Call the nearest hospital. This woman needs help.”
Finally, on another occasion, King was explaining his concept of the relationship between civil rights and the rights of labor. He said, “What good does it do to sit at the counter when you can’t afford a hamburger?”
This is pure eloquence and realism.
