Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has become a byword or slogan used to justify political and economical ends of wise and prudent individuals in this world.

Just like Malcom X, the personality of these two men has been exhalted over the principles that made these great men what they were. Anyone we consider great, from Jesus to Mohammed, from Fanny Low Hammer to Harried Tub man, personality has taken precedence over principles.

After these great men and women pass away from among us, their pictures are put up on walls and they are sung about and talked about, but the way in which they LIVED their lives is not being followed by us who say WE LOVE these great individuals.

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If principles were being followed by us who say we LOVE Martin, we love Malcom, we love Jesus, we love Mohammed, WE LOVE ALL-MIGHTY GOD, the LORD of CREATION, then their spirit would be alive in us today.

These great ones would never die, for they would walk, talk and LIVE in us. One of Dr. King’s disciples, Rev. James Luther Bevel is coming to SIUC 7 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Student Center Kaskaskia Room, to speak on principles he learned from Dr. King in the 1960s.

As a co-founder of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, organizer of the March on Washington in 1963, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Committee and overall strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, it is encouraging for me to SEE principles utilized by Dr. Martin Luther King walking and talking among us today. Let us learn the principles today and pass them on tomorrow!