What if the mightiest word is love?
By: Thomas Fisher

In discussing King’s legacy, Pulitzer Prize nominee Elizabeth Alexander spoke of love and how it is love which makes us do better in the world. She reminded us of King’s words in saying “let love guide and unite us not for what were fighting against but what we are fighting for.”

Alexander, a well-known poet and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Yale University, delivered a speech entitled “The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Hopeful Future” in her hopes and aspirations in the continuance of King’s legacy.

“His legacy is on-going and it asks something of us,” Alexander stated. She spoke of King’s legacy and described how it asks all of us individuals to commit to our countries and to our communities.

For Alexander it is love that changes lives. She stated, “It is love which makes us say we can do better, we expect better, we deserve better, we will struggle until we have better,” This message was sent to various students, faculty, and community members at Opening Convocation at Wittenberg University.

She recognized how much of an impact King has had in what he stood up for. Quoting the activist she said, “We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.”

Who would have known that sitting in her baby carriage at the March on Washington in 1963 where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous ‘I have a dream speech” would be a scene involving a theme that she would spend her life continuing on through poetry and speech.

“What if the mightiest word is love, she asked the audience.” She then read the poem, Praise Song for the Day, a poem she had written and addressed at Barack Obama’s Inauguration. As her poem and speech came to an end, the community in Weaver Chapel rose to a standing ovation.