From a culture of hatred, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged.

Spiritually attuned, eloquent in speech, he, like the great world shifters before him, rose above the level of personal anger to the higher plane of nonviolence.

In anger we accomplish no positive, forward progress. We merely perpetuate any wrongs that may have been done to us by dwelling on them, creating more negative outcomes as a result, all the while giving continued power to those who have wounded us.

Had Martin Luther King Jr. remained in anger, the world, we can safely assume, would look far more grim today.

But instilled inside the man Martin Luther King Jr. was a gift; the capacity for love. The kind of love that sees through injustice and hatred and affirms a solution. The kind of love that intrinsically rises; is raised. The kind that acknowledges the truth of a situation and still, irregardless, holds firm. He spoke the kind of love that alone has the power to triumph over all else, hatred included. Love was his mission and his means.

The universe, so governed by the law of cause and effect as it is, would ultimately shift in accordance with Martin Luther King Jr.’s contribution.

Each of us has the power to do the same. In a society of lesser oppression, perhaps, on a platform not quite as grand in size, but each of us has within us the same gift that Martin Luther King Jr. had. It is up to us whether or not we wish to rise as he rose, and to choose love over hatred as he so chose. This choice we have is available to us in every single moment of our lives.