Drew Edmondson for Governor of Oklahoma

King Left Legacy of Extraordinary Service

For the last few days, Linda and I have had the great honor of participating in events marking the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I wrote the following column in 2007, and it was printed on Martin Luther King Day in newspapers across the state. I thought I would share it with you today in recognition of a great man and the legacy that followed his remarkable life.

I hope you enjoy the column, and that you may be inspired to continue the work done by Dr. King and others before and since his death in 1968.

Drew

The time was noon. It was Jan. 15, 1929, and as happens each day many times over, a child was born. The birth was ordinary. The life that followed was anything but.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a hero to millions, but his first label in life was simply "son." His father, Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr., was a Southern Baptist preacher - his mother, a preacher's wife. He was the second of three children, born in an ordinary family to ordinary circumstances.

He had an ordinary childhood attending school in Georgia, graduating from college and choosing a career, as many ordinary people do.

Dr. King became an ordained minister in February 1948 at the age of nineteen, and in 1955, he received his doctorate in Systemic Theology from Boston University.

His family, his childhood, his education were at least somewhat, well, ordinary. His faith, however, was extraordinary.

Dr. King was a true believer in the common man, and over the course of his lifetime, he became a symbol of justice, a champion for minorities and a voice for the working class.

He was a tireless leader of the civil rights movement working to gain equal rights for African Americans and blue collar workers. He was arrested more than 30 times, despite being a vocal proponent of non-violent protest.

He was a man with a dream, and he worked toward that dream up to the day of his death in 1968.

And so on Martin Luther King Day, we honor a great American, as Dr. King will again be labeled.

He is remembered as a champion, a pillar, an orator, a father, a husband, a victim, a reverend, a son. Most of all, he was a man whose extraordinary faith in ordinary people never wavered, and he worked selflessly to better the lives of millions. Perhaps the label Dr. King would have liked best ... maybe the one he would have given himself ... is simply "servant."

And maybe the best thing we can do to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., our humble servant, is to ourselves, as ordinary men and women, serve others.

For, as Dr. King told the congregation in a 1968 sermon shortly before his death, even ordinary men can aspire to greatness.

"Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve," Dr. King said. "You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's Theory of Relativity to serve. You don't have to know the Second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant."

Dr. King certainly was that servant. He was truly extraordinary. He followed the admonition of St. Francis to, "Teach the gospel constantly and, if necessary, use words."
Paid for by Edmondson for Governor