MLK

I forgot that Martin Luther King Jr. started his life in Atlanta, but I drove by a sign to the visitors center while driving aroudn down here. Today my cousins and I went and checked it out. If you get a chance, go, it is pretty cool.
Non-violence, not a political concept that we think of too much these days around here, direct action, taking it to the man, a self righteous way to go. How did he put it? Not the actions of a coward, or something like that. It was great to see all the displays about how this group of people decided enough was enough and it was time for them to make a change and stop being stepped on. What could be cooler? Now how do apply this concept so that there is freedom to our friends and families who want to get married but can't because they want to do it with someone of the same sex? If that is a threat to the institution of marriage, then not allowing it a threat to freedom? Does one institution or belief have more weight than another? In a nation that covets freedom I would say that yes, freedom trumps marriage. Now as the religious institutions in this country are the ones that are declaring a restriction of our freedoms is it time to take the facts and engage the churches? They are the ones declaring this against the wishes of God, who suddenly is helping to rule this nation. I don't remember voting for this entity last November, so now is the time to engage those who are using this ficticious being as a tool to stop the freedoms of my friends and family, or all of our friends and families and make them stand up and say, yes this being says you cannot be with this person.
The lessons in social change that Dr. King shared with us can be applied to this struggle and it can be won. I saw that today as I stood before his tomb, down the street from his old house, in the text written in the building dedicated to his legacy. Freedom isn't free and my visit to this shrine today showed me the price tag.