A WWKD Question: What Would Martin Luther King, Jr., Do?

MLK prison photo

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that really matter."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yes, Harrisonburg will finally have a street named after slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm delighted, and applaud everyone who worked tirelessly to help make this possible.

I can't help wondering, though, if King were alive today, if he may have been less interested in attending the Tuesday evening rally and hearing on the street naming issue than he would have the Tuesday noon meeting at the library addressing civil rights and criminal justice reform, one led by the Mobile Justice Tour.

As it turned out, after a blitz of emails and other publicity, just over a dozen people attended the MJT meeting, one that focused on 1) restoring civil rights for non-violent offenders, 2) offering earned sentence credit for inmates who work at rehabilitating themselves (a system already in place in most states) and 3) reducing barriers to employment for deserving ex-offenders.

If we truly want to highlight Martin Luther King's civil rights legacy, we will not only honor him with street signs but emulate him by considering the WWKD question ("What Would King Do?").

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