Page 2 The Skanner January 13, 2016
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
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News Editor
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Graphic Designer
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Reporters
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Seattle Office Coordinator
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Photographer
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Opinion
Honoring Dr. King’s ‘New Definition of Greatness’
“I
f you want to be im-
portant — wonderful.
If you want to be recog-
nized — wonderful. If
you want to be great — won-
derful. But recognize that he
who is greatest among you
shall be your servant. That’s
a new definition of greatness.
And this morning, the thing
that I like about it: by giving
that definition of greatness, it
means that everybody can be
great, because everybody can
serve. You don’t have to have
a college degree to serve. You
don’t have to make your sub-
ject and your verb agree to
serve. You don’t have to know
about Plato and Aristotle to
serve. You don’t have to know
Einstein’s theory of relativ-
ity to serve. You don’t have
to know the second theory
of thermodynamics in phys-
ics to serve. You only need a
heart full of grace, a soul gen-
erated by love.”
These well-known words
are from Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s sermon “The Drum
Major Instinct,” delivered at
Ebenezer Baptist Church on
February 4, 1968. He was ex-
plaining that we all start out
with the ingrained instinct
to be “drum majors” – every-
one wants to be important,
Marian
Wright
Edelman
Children’s
Defense
Fund
to be first, to lead the parade.
Watch a group of children
try to form a line and right
away you’ll see this instinct
in action. But Dr. King said
too many people never out-
grow this instinct — and by
constantly struggling to be
the most powerful or famous
“
larger-than-life, mythical fig-
ure. But it’s crucial for them
to understand Dr. King wasn’t
a superhuman with magical
powers. Our children need
to be reminded that Dr. King
was a real person – just like
all of the other ministers, par-
ents, teachers, neighbors, and
other familiar adults in their
lives today.
I first heard Dr. King speak
in person at a Spelman Col-
lege chapel service during
my senior year in college. Dr.
King was just 31 but he had
already gained a national rep-
utation during the successful
bility and ability to rise above
it that I most remember.
“If I Can Help Somebody
Along the Way” was his fa-
vorite song. He was an ordi-
nary man who made history
because he was willing to
stand up and serve and make
a difference in extraordinary
ways as did the legions of oth-
er civil rights warriors in the
1950s and 1960s.
We need to teach our chil-
dren every day that they
can and must make a differ-
ence. too. “Everybody can be
great, because everybody can
serve.”
Our children need to be reminded that Dr. King was a
real person – just like all of the other ministers, par-
ents, teachers, neighbors, and other familiar adults in
their lives today
or wealthiest or best-educat-
ed, we forget one of the Gos-
pels’ and life’s largest truths:
the real path to greatness is
through service.
This is one of the key les-
sons we should teach our chil-
dren about Dr. King. Many
of them have just studied Dr.
King in school in the days
leading up to his birthday,
and many have learned to see
him as a history book hero, a
Montgomery Bus Boycott five
years earlier. He became a
mentor and friend. Although
I do remember him as a great
leader and a hero, I also re-
member him as someone able
to admit how often he was
afraid and unsure about his
next step. But faith prevailed
over fear, uncertainty, fa-
tigue, and sometimes depres-
sion.
It was his human vulnera-
Towards the end of “The
Drum Major Instinct,” Dr.
King told the congregation
he sometimes thought about
his own death and funeral.
He said when that day came
he didn’t want people to talk
about his Nobel Peace Prize
or his degrees or hundreds of
awards: “I’d like somebody to
mention that day that Martin
Luther King, Jr., tried to give
his life serving others.”