By Réginal Souffrant

When nights are freezing, and sleep has refused to marinate with your eyes, there is always a blanket of hope waiting to warm you up from head to toe.

 

Sometimes, you are looking for a way out, but your tired eyes cannot see the end of the tunnel. Sometimes, you are digging and digging to complete your journey, but your feet are too weak to move forward. How many times our deliverance is next door, but our hearts are too broken to harbor the blessings?

 

Often, we are eager to cross a river of deception, but our history of fear makes us believe that we are unable to swim, even though the river’s depth is lower than our knees.

 

After centuries of racism, many of us have divorced sunlight to marry the uncertainty of darkness. Racism has become an invisible cop who handcuffs our hands, our feet and, most likely, our minds. Racism makes us jail our own brain, while our oppressor may open the prison’s doors.  Racism creates mental slavery and self- discrimination.

 

Thanks to Dr. King’s work, we can confirm that we have climbed the mountain of self-assurance which leads to the promise land, although our rosy destination is still miles away.

 

The Jim Crow era symbolizes the rainy day, but Dr. King’s endurance is our sunshine.

 

The beatings of Selma and Montgomery constituted the dark nights when the Klan used to burn our homes and our churches, but Dr. King’s hopeful messages remain vivid in our collective memory.

 

His eloquence resonates in our ears like a melody, and his statue is erected higher than a steeple in our self-esteem.  Dr. King’s legacy is brighter than a golden object, and his name is synonymous with integrity.

 

Children and adults should be proud to commemorate Dr. King. We all stand on his shoulder. Without his rare sacrifices, the road of freedom could have been more difficult. Without his intelligence, the stereotypes about race inferiority could have been tougher to overcome. Thanks to his gracious style and his priceless blood shed to maintain his belief, we have a great example of a noble heart.

 

In the end, Dr. King had to die. He had to go because his love for righteousness was too alien to his upside down society. Dr. King had to say goodbye to this bizarre world because his soul’s purity was too big for this sinful planet. Dr. King had to depart because his “Strength to Love” had deranged those whose hatred is their motto and their way of life.

 

Although King’s flesh has left this pitiless universe, he continues to manifest himself among us through his spirit and victorious struggle.

 

If some day, one never knows, our ungratefulness might blind us to a point where we would neglect to revere this charismatic leader, I am convinced_ deep in my heart_ that the winds would blow through the trees to sing for him, and lightings would zigzag in the sky to write his magisterial name in colors that no human eyes have ever seen before. Long live Dr. King!

 

Last Update 01-19-14