Martin Luther King Day
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
-- Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963.
(Photo: Newly appointed Second Vice Premier and Labor party leader Shimon Peres, right, shares a laugh with Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, left, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, center, after a vote that provided Sharon with a new majority in the Knesset, Israel parliament, in Jerusalem Monday Jan. 10, 2005. AP Photo/Boaz Openhaimer)
