Martin Luther King preaching at the Ebenezer Church in Atlanta in 4 February 1968 shortly before he was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee, referred to what he would like said at his funeral. He said :“If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three and four hundred other awards, that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school.
I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King tried to love somebody. I’d like you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to be able to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to be able to say that I did try to love and serve humanity.
Yes if you want to say I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
And that’s all I want to say…if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the Master taught, then my living will not be in vain…’
Such humility and such honesty have seldom been expressed. Thank God for Martin Luther King Jar. He showed us the way to go.
An odd contradiction : Martin Luther King, a man of peace is a hero of a man who lionises murderers and men of violence.
One of King;s heroes was Mike Quill. founder of the Transport Union in New York, the Kerry-born ex-IRA man.
When Quill died King paid him a great tribute.
When Obama visited Ireland nobody reminded him of Quill or of Belfast REpublicans who
campaigned against slavery in America before Abraham Lincoln was born and when Daniel
O’Connell was still in school.
There are YOU TUBE records of Mike Quill.
King, Mandela and the Blanket men and women to me are the greatest fighters for justice in m y lifetime