When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke, the nation listened. His “I Have a Dream” speech, given in 1963, stands as an all-time classic because it persuades people even to this day that we can and should achieve racial equality. Because of his outspokenness about the problems facing the United States, King became a legendary leader.
Thirty-five
years after his tragic death, no one has taken his place. Sure, for a
while some people have raised their voices above the din of political chatter
and gotten our attention. But by and large, we have no one willing, like
Dr. King, to tell us what we don’t want to hear.
Where
are the Kings in our society?
Sometimes
elements of our society suppress them. Take John Lennon, for example. He
dared to speak openly of his dream of world peace. Lennon, by denouncing
the foreign policy of the United States, even jeopardized his right to remain
in our nation. Before he could bring the world to the peace that he had
imagined, an assassin silenced him.
We
must understand that leadership requires people to take risks. It is
unfortunate for Lennon, and for us, that a man dedicated to opposing violence
lost his life to it. How many of us are willing to make that sacrifice?
Sometimes
we find fault in what they do or who they are. Witness Tom Hayden, who dared to
oppose the Vietnam War in ways so radical that the government put him on
trial. Though a court ultimately overturned his conviction, he gained
scores of critics who called him a traitor.
We
need to consider a leader’s contributions to society before we discount
them. Martin Luther King, with his personal shortcomings, would have
trouble thriving today. Our media would have a field day reporting his
infidelities to a society hungry for scandal.
Sometimes
we fail to recognize their greatness until after they are gone. Recall Mahatma
Gandhi. Known as the leader of the Indian independence from Great Britain
during his lifetime, his legend as a pacifist and a moral force grew after his
assassination. In fact, King used many of Gandhi’s tactics, such as civil
disobedience, in his own movement.
We
should admire great leaders during their lifetime by supporting goals that we
deem worthwhile. Consider Dr. Helen Caldicott, who has pleaded eloquently
for nuclear disarmament for five decades. Instead of trying to find out
what is wrong with someone like Dr. Caldicott, we should commend what is right
with her.
There
are many worthwhile goals for our society, like peace, equal opportunity and
ending poverty. If we truly feel strongly about these or other goals, we
should become the leader that we look for.