A SHORT TRIBUTE TO MARTIN:
January 20, 2003

Occasionally a voice arises that changes our world. This month in the US, we celebrate the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream which fundamentally changed our culture. The establishment of a national holiday honoring his birth gives us a chance every year to remember the man and his words ... and, perhaps more importantly, a chance to recommit to his dream of equality and nonviolence.

As violence and the possibility of war continue to breakout around the world, I have been pulled to Dr. King's words and found myself yearning for a visionary leader who could help us find our way out of this dark time. The following poem flowed from that longing. Please feel free to pass it along ... the following link includes a picture of King and Rosa Parks. http://www.thinksmart.com/bios/poetry6.html

        May 2003 be the year we learn how to be truly nonviolent!

                        Joyce Wycoff

Numbers

by Joyce Wycoff

Twenty-six he was when destiny crooked its finger,
beckoning the still-green minister-scholar into the world. Forty-two she was when she pounded on the door Theoretically opened ninety-four years before.

        It was the first of December, 1955,
        When history wove
        Their fates together
        Into a multi-colored tapestry of change.

        'Tired,' she said,
        'Bone tired.
        Tired of giving up
        Tired of giving in,'
        she said and sat in the front of the bus.

Montgomery, Alabama, shivered as the temperature rose.
The old ways could be heard keening long into the night
As 42,000 people left the buses to stand by Rosa's side.
381 days they walked: nannies, maids, carpenters, all.

Two hundred years of anger rose up to shatter the silence
And from this deafening roar came a molasses-rich voice Spinning a song of hope with a melody of peace and love. 'I have a dream,' boomed and echoed across the land.

The young minister-leader painted a picture of a life
without color lines, a world without violence.
His voice lifted the dream: Richmond, Little Rock,
Dallas opened their buses, took down their signs.

        'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
        about things that matter,' he said, never silent again.
        He took our hands and led us step-by-step onto a new path,
        Brothers and sisters connected by heart rather than skin.

        'Always avoid violence,' he said.
        'If you succumb to the temptation ...
        unborn generations will be the recipients
        of a long and desolate night of bitterness,
        and your chief legacy to the future will be an
        endless reign of meaningless chaos.'

Thirty nine he was when one man with a gun silenced the voice, But not the words ... those four words branded into our brains: 'I have a dream ...,' saffron-rich messengers left behind to Carry forward the dream
        of a color-blind world of hope and peace.

Dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. born January 15, 1929; Assassinated April 4, 1968.

International Society of Interfaith Ambassadors http://www.angelfire.com/wi/inroads/society.html