Ellie's acceptance speech, Friday, January 17th, 2003

I first saw Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. At a Lutheran church in St. Paul, Mn. During the late 50s. It was an audience of predominantly white faces, and he preached about love. That was a time when many black leaders had become cynical and tired of waiting for white people to give them equal rights and were calling for separation and independence. When Malcolm X came to the Michigan State campus around that time he refused to allow white people in the audience. But Reverend King never advocated separation or hatred. Even when the black children were bombed in the church, or when civil rights workers were killed, he called for non violence, love and peace. He included all people in his struggles for education, health care, jobs with decent pay and for peace. He knew he would not live to see what he had struggled for so consistently and uncompromisingly, and he sacrificed his life for us all. I am inspired by him and grateful to him every day of my life. It is incredible to me that you have honored me with this award in his name. I thank you for this opportunity to pay tribute to him, and Id like to quote some words of his that are especially appropriate at this time.

A final problem mankind must solve is finding an alternative to war and human destruction. Recent events have vividly reminded us that nations are not reducing but rather increasing their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction...

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which wearrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the un-numbered dead and maimed of past wars. Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete....It is not enough to say, We must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the eradication of war but on the affirmation of peace...We must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have the will and determination to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism.

Quotes taken from Dr. King's book, Where Do We Go From Here?