Life's most urgent question, what are we doing for others?

Every year on Martin Luther King Jr, I try and listen/watch Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream Speech." This morning, after my shower, I saw that AOL had a link to watch the speech. I watched the speech and within a minute or two, tears welled up in my eyes and I started to cry. His words, unlike many others, speak to me, the way he spoke to millions of others and touched their hearts, he has touched mine.

To me, what makes Martin Luther King Jr, one of the greatest people to have ever lived was the fact that he believed that he could, along with many others change the world he was living in. He might not see the long term results of the work he and many others were doing, but he worked so hard to promote and live by a message that still lives on today. Peace, love, brotherhood, understanding, and believing one can change the world without hurting each other.

I believe in this message and always will. Because a soul is too weak to not believe in something that you are willing to die for, a heart is broken without the love of your fellow neighbor, a spirit is shattered without peace in your community and world, life is too precious to devote one's time to ignorace and hatred. Many of you know that I am a quote person, and here are a list, a rather long one, of some of the most profound words that Martin Luther King Jr has spoken...

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
Expediency asks the question - is it political?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, or political; but because it is right. -Martin Luther King Jr.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false, and the false with the true. -MLK Jr.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he would die for, he isn't fit to live.