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Obama readies for MLK dedication
Situated between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, King’s is the first monument on the National Mall honoring a black leader.
Obama was just 6 years old when King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. But he has often talked about the influence King’s life, particularly his commitment to public service, has had on him.
In a 2009 newspaper editorial written just days before his inauguration, Obama wrote that King “lived his life as a servant to others,” and urged Americans to follow his example and find ways to enrich people’s lives in their communities and across the country.
Valerie Jarrett, a White House senior adviser and longtime friend of the president, said she expects the president’s remarks “to come straight from the heart.”
King’s “willingness to sacrifice himself for our country, to fight for a dream he believed in, like justice and equality, really gave a foundation for President Obama becoming the president,” Jarrett said.
Obama is also looking forward to the opportunity to speak as a parent and to remind his daughters and other young people about the work that went into securing the liberties they may now take for granted, Jarrett said.
When Obama imagined years ago taking his daughters to see the King monument, he couldn’t have known he would do so as president. But he said when the monument was complete, he would tell his daughters “that this man gave his life serving others. I will tell them that this man tried to love somebody. I will tell them that because he did these things, they live today with the freedom God intended, their citizenship unquestioned, their dreams unbounded.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
