Remembering Dr. King

Dear all,

It was late August in 1963. Excitement was in the air. My wife and I were living near Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where I was stationed as a First Lieutenant in the Army Medical Service Corps. With us was our daughter, who was less than two months old. Almost as important to us was what was planned for August 28th: the March on Washington, at which a quarter of a million Americans would gather in front of the Lincoln Memorial to protest ongoing racial injustice. It was there on the Lincoln Memorial steps that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., touched the hearts of most Americans -- red and yellow, black and white -- with his unforgettable speech and its unforgettable words, "I have a dream . . . . " Inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. King and his brave fellow heroes turned the other cheek to racial oppression and even to racial violence. And in doing so, they helped America find its own soul.

Though the journey is still very much a work in process, they helped lead America toward its raison d'être: liberty and justice for all.