EDITORIAL: The nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King

The nation takes a holiday today to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the eminent civil rights activist felled by an assassin’s bullet 49 years ago on April 4.

In Las Vegas, the celebration of this great American includes a downtown parade starting at 10 a.m. Antonio Fargas of “Starsky and Hutch” fame — he played Huggy Bear long before Snoop Dogg — will serve as parade ambassador. The theme of the event is “Living the Dream: The Movement Continues.”

Dr. King preached nonviolent civil disobedience and he would no doubt have much to say about the conditions and controversies of today. Yet we can still learn much from the deep wisdom behind the powerful words with which he inspired and motivated during turbulent times more than a half century ago.

Here is a sampling that displays his eloquence and character:

— “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

— “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

— “Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”

— “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.”

— “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

—“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

Who among us today wouldn’t benefit from embracing the Rev. King’s potent theme of treating others with honor, dignity and respect?