Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Moral Vision & J. R. R. Tolkein’s

Monday morning when I heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s magnificent articulation of his moral vision voiced by a young African-American man on NPR's Morning Edition, I was moved. For, indeed, “some things are right and wrong, eternally so, absolutely so.” And this reminded me of a similar moral vision articulated by J. R. R. in The Two Towers: “Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”

[This is essentially the text of the letter I sent to Morning Edition in response to their Kansas Celebrates MLK piece.]