Every now and then I guess we all think realistically (Yes, sir) about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator—that something that we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. And every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning. If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. (Yes) And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes) I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)
And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)
I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)
I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. [emphasis added] (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that's all I want to say.
If I can help somebody as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,
If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong,
Then my living will not be in vain.
If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,
If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,
If I can spread the message as the master taught,
Then my living will not be in vain.
Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

Secondly, although it's true at one level that King "proved that one man with a dream can make a difference," it's even more true, I think, to say that he proved that one man with a dream who was capable of invigorating a mass movement that, among other things, engaged in civil disobedience and social disruption, could make a difference (especially with the ultimate support of such a visionary president as Lyndon B. Johnson). It is important to honor King, but it may be even more important to honor the far more anonymous, equally courageous, African-Americans (and, yes, white Americans) who put their bodies on the line and, in some cases, equally paid with their lives for daring to believe in the Declaration of Independence and its promise of equality (a promise strikingly lacking in our 1787 Constitution, as Thurgood Marshall explained during the Bicentennial).

A drum major needs a marching band behind him (or her). Otherwise s/he is merely a tragic (or, indeed, ridiculous and self-deluded) figure. In honoring the drum major, we should honor his magnificent band as well, for they made Martin Luther King Day possible. My wife was in Birmingham last week interviewing now-middle-aged adults who 45 years ago participated in the "children's march" in Birmingham that, by drawing the crazed response from Bull Connor, finally moved the otherwise indifferent John F. Kennedy to recognize what was happening and to move toward introducing his Civil Rights Bill (that Johnson in fact got passed). Several of them, including one women who was eight years old at the time, recalled that King was capable through his quiet eloquence of dampening their own fears and creating what to me was an almost literally incredible sense of calm and inner peace. (That particular eighth-year-old spent a week in jail before being released.) And, lest we forget, he emphasized, above all, love and non-violence (notions that today seem to most of us the equivalent of "fairy tales") . Mitt is surely not the only American who should ponder the implications of the truly radical figure who was Martin Luther King.