silwritersguild | New Year's Resolution: January 14

In honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday tomorrow, we offer a pair of quotes as a bonus prompt for August's "Utopia/Dystopia" challenge:

“In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.”

~Martin Luther King, Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 17, 1957

“[T]he absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide."

~ Martin Luther King, Address at the Fiftieth Annual NAACP Convention, July 17, 1959