"Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict

suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you ... But be assured that we'll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., December, 1967

X X X

Profound words, spoken or written, are the equivalent of trunks of well-worn oak trees — they take deep roots and produce strong, winding branches of introspection, learning, growth.

For this Mississippi boy, reared in a home where the Bible, daddy's belt and fresh cornbread are synonymous, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — like the ones above — have taken some of the deepest roots in my heart and mind over the years.