When the sun rises on Sunday, a nation will wake up to the memory of your birth. Some will wake up to the memory of forty three years ago, when on the steps of the Lincoln memorial, you professed your dream for a just and righteous nation; a nation that "will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

I will wake up on Sunday a better man because your words continue to heal my soul from the trials of time and the ills of my fellow man. You taught me not to satisfy my thirst for freedom and justice "by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred". When adversity knocks me down, I hear you say that “unarmed truth and unconditional love shall have the final word”. So, I rise again.

Years have rolled past, and so I know that we have a finer land, a more noble future because you, the humble child of God, were willing to suffer for the sake of righteousness, peace, and genuine brotherhood.