The celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life this year comes at a time when our deepest divisions as a country and as people have again been exposed. Even here in this community we’ve seen hate raise its ugly head.

Living in a heterogeneous society is hard. We have an instinct as humans not to trust someone who looks different from us. It’s not a conscious thought – it occurs at the brain stem – but all of us carry biases when we go out into the world.

Those biases are hard to acknowledge and even harder to change.

King, in perhaps his greatest gift to us, provided an opportunity to rise above those instincts and recognize each other’s humanity at a higher brain level. The civil rights era succeeded because it demanded we be stronger together – with equal rights.

In King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which he gave 60 years ago, he spoke of unity and brotherhood. He described a better world where the promise of America, a place where all men were created equal, was finally kept.

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children,” said King in his 1963 speech.

How do you get there in a nation where one racial group has been enslaved for hundreds of years then forced to live under segregation and state-sanctioned racism? By demanding change.

“It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

“There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges,” King said.

King and other civil rights leaders made it impossible to ignore the injustices of their time. They alerted people to their tribalism and bias. They asked them to do more. But they did it while making the case that it was going to improve everyone’s lives. King also made a point that anyone can give in to hate.

“But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” King said.

That’s important for us all to remember. Hate and division are easy. King showed that a message of hope and unity, delivered with compassion and understanding has the power to effect change.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Editorial Board

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