I have some very bad news for all of you, and that is that Martin
Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between
fellow human beings.  He died in the cause of that effort.

In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it
is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction
we want to move in.  For those of you who are black--considering the
evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were
responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a
desire for revenge.  We can move in that direction as a country, in
greater polarization--black people amongst black, and white amongst
white, filled with hatred toward one another.

Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and
to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that
has spread across our land, with compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred
and mistrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people,
I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of
feeling.  I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a
white man.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the
United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not
violence and lawlessness; but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward
one another; a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer
within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and
for our people.