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BY WOODIE W. WHITE

Dear Martin,

What a year 2001! No event since your death has had so deep an impact on me as that which occurred on Sept. 11. I write this letter with a huge hole in my heart.

Martin, on that day an unprecedented terrorist attack took place on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center in New York City, and an apparent aborted attack on Washington when a plane crashed in Pennsylvania. The result, some 4,000 people were killed.

The horror of it all, then a subsequent United States response to the attack escalated the suffering.

God must weep!

This tragedy is a dramatic reminder of the depth of hate and ill will in the world, and in the minds and hearts of so many.

Martin, I still remember the powerful illustration in your book, Where Do We Go From Here? You recalled the plot of an intended novel found among the papers of a deceased author. The plot: A widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together.

In the United States, we continue to be challenged by the question of how a diverse and separated family will live together. Race and, increasingly, class are the barriers separating the family.

The institutional barriers of racial separation continue to fall. In many ways, we witness achievements in race not even imagined three decades ago. But the heart barriers remain. Sadly, they appear in each succeeding generation. New racists, if you will, emerge. Thus, progress and achievement are tainted by some measure of retrogression.

Martin, while the anniversary of your birth is observed all across the nation that in itself a remarkable achievement to celebrate we will be reminded of ways in which we are a better America. Yet sadly, there will be ample evidence in community, and even in the church, that the dream is yet to be fully realized.

Perhaps no words are more appropriate than yours to conclude this letter:

In spite of the tension and uncertainties of this period, something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away; new systems of justice and equality are being born. In a real sense this is a great time to be alive. Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that we face a world crisis that leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of lifes restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark, confused world, the Kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of men.

Martin, I am confident that we shall overcome, because indeed, we are overcoming!

Happy Birthday!

Woodie

Each year, Indiana Area Bishop Woodie W. White writes a letter to his friend and colleague, the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in advance of Kings Jan. 15 birthday.