ATLANTA — The U.S. holiday honoring slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. has taken on added meaning for most Americans this year, as they try to make sense of the violence in Arizona that left six people dead and a member of Congress fighting for her life.
Arizona once resisted the notion of a federal King holiday — and last year was the setting for a sharp-tongued debate on immigration. Now the southwestern state finds itself in search of solace after the Jan. 8 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and constituents meeting with her outside a supermarket in Tucson.
King's son, Martin Luther King III, head of The Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, said the Arizona tragedy is a grim reminder that the country has not yet achieved his father's dream of a peaceful society.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Monday, January 17th 2011 at 5:12PM
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