“To Save the Soul of America”
By Ingrid Muñoz
My senior year of high school I had to write an essay on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for my history class. I remember being rather upset about having to write it, mainly because it was assigned a day or two before it was due...and it was due on his holiday. I had made plans with my best friend for that day, but we had to cancel in order to write the assignment.
I remember spending all day trying to write it. My friend, on the other hand, had completed it within a couple hours. She later revealed to me that she had mostly copy-pasted a bunch of information and hardly even tried. What bothered me even more was that she had received an A, whereas I had gotten a C. I wasn't a C student, so this was a problem for many reasons.
This particular event has always haunted me. I was never able to figure out how I had gotten such a bad grade on something I had sacrificed my entire day for. I had put in a lot of effort, but apparently I had missed something. In retrospect, I was probably more focused on hating the assignment than understanding why my professor had assigned it to us. What were we expected to learn?
I may never know for sure, but I realized something that felt important this week in class: "To Save the Soul of America." This was Dr. King's conviction. He was a devout Christian, he believed in the power of God's love, and he gave his life to the battle between good and evil. He understood that fighting hate with more hate would only add to the violence, he knew that the monster was bigger than race or class. He was able to recognize the demons his enemies were facing, and tried to love them anyway. To give in to hate and violence would not only cause death and suffering on earth, but would haunt the very souls of all parties involved, forever. The only proper, long-lasting solution is Love. Until we all come to the same realization, the hate, the violence, the suffering - the monster - will persist, and it will take more souls down with it.