{Photo credit: brownpau}

Today we honor a courageous human being who always said it like it was: Martin Luther King, Jr.

I often wonder what he’d think of the current anti-immigration laws – full of the very civil right abuses he so adamantly denounced.

My children are still way too little to understand any of it, but as they get a little older, I want to make sure that they know about this man and not just from what is taught to them in school. I want them to understand that what he did for blacks and civil rights also had a tremendous impact in the Latino community.

While there’s probably very few people in this country who have never heard his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. was a passionate and prolific writer and an unparalleled wordsmith. And so, in case you didn’t know some of these, I leave you with some of his powerful words of wisdom we should all attempt to live by:

• “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

• “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

• “There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”

• “Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

• “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

And last, but not least:

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

If only people realized that yes, it’s that simple…