Martin Luther King Jr. stood for and behind a belief that peace was the goal and the way.

As we take a day off in January, ostensibly to give pause to consider and honor who he was, I pray that we do.

And as we face the need to change in our community, to find the personal peace we need in order to address the larger issues of violence and hatred, we can look to King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech for inspiration and guidance.

In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize almost 50 years ago, King said, “Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.”

“Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.”

King was clear, “If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

We live in a time in our community where we find it difficult to overlook or understand the slightest oversight or misunderstanding.

At best, we yell at or disparage one another for the terrible act of cutting someone off in traffic; we scream at our children for the simple fact of being children.

At worst, our young people pull out guns and kill each other because they come from a different neighborhood, or because someone either purposely or inadvertently “dissed” them or a “friend.”

Revenge, aggression, retaliation rule our streets, our homes, our institutions.

We do not communicate effectively with one another. We do not take pause to consider what another may be facing when we lash out for minor transgressions.

King had words for our self-centeredness, our brazen self interest.

“I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality."

“I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. ‘And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.’ I still believe that We Shall overcome!"

“I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners – all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty – and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold.”

At a time when our babies grow up to kill each other over a pair of sneakers or a cheap gold chain, we desperately need the inspiration that Martin Luther King offers above.

We say we can’t do anything to turn the tide, we are afraid of each other, or it’s not out problem.

King believed the need for peace and justice and equality was everyone’s problem.

I do too.

Those interested can read King’s Nobel Peace Prize speech here.