Martin Luther King, Jr.: Memorializing his legacy

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Presidents, civil rights icons, celebrities and ordinary citizens gathered Monday on the National Mall, where construction is getting under way for a monument honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The monument will be built on a four-acre site near the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for civil rights in August 1963.

President Bush said that he was proud to dedicate the memorial to "the lasting memory of a great man."

"Dr. King showed us that a life of conscience and purpose can lift up many souls, and on this ground a monument will rise that preserves his legacy for the ages," Bush said. (The article.)

Today, countless individuals witnessed the groundbreaking for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, over 38 years after his death. Although I personally wish the memorial was made much earlier, at least it has been done.

While Dr. King, Jr.'s activism was the core of the black Civil Rights Movement, his heart lay with the natural, God-given rights of all people of all races. This monument is a nice symbol of who he was and what he did. Bravo to those in charge of getting it built, as well as those who pushed for its making and supported it along the way, and so on.

As he said in his famous speech delivered on August 28th, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

God rest his soul, and may his legacy continue, reminding those of us alive today, and our children yet to be born, of his struggle and his death.

~Elindelwolf

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