Today, the 4th April, is the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jnr. On that morning in 1968 Dr King was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.His funeral services were held on 9 April in Atlanta at the Ebenezer Baptist church and on the campus of Morehouse College with the President of the United States proclaiming a day of mourning.
The area where King was entombed is located on Freedom Plaza at the Martin Luther King Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change. On his grave are the words, "Free at last."
The door of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis has the inscription, "Martin Luther King Jnr., 1929-1968 followed with Ralph Abernathy's funeral text from Genesis, "Here Comes the Dreamer let us Kill Him."
Today we remember Martin Luther King Jnr., the dreamer. We also recognise that while people can kill the dreamer they cannot kill God's dream.
While Martin Luther King Jnr. has been revered down through these years it is good to remember that genuine service is not the possession of the few but the privilege of us all.
King once said these words:
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve.
You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Geoff Pound
Image: King and friends on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, a few moments before he was shot.