I love what Charlotte wrote about the self-important party poopers out there who feel it necessary to tell us jubilant Americans that there’s no need to celebrate the death of Bin Laden. My favorite manifestation of this trend showed up on Facebook where a number of people posted a quote from Martin Luther King. The “quote” reads:
“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
That certainly would be a home run of a quote. It speaks perfectly to the killing of Bin Laden and those silly Americans and their distasteful celebrations.
Oh yes, it would be a home run….if he’d actually said it. The problem is, King never uttered those words.
The Atlantic looked into the quote and it turns out an American teacher in Kobe, Japan mixed her own thoughts (the first sentence in the quote) with MLK’s quote from his sermon Strength to Love (the rest of the quote). It was eventually tweeted by Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) to his 1.6 million twitter followers and well, you get the point.
A facebook friend of mine put it on her status report and then sheepishly had to admit that King didn’t actually say it. But she wasn’t embarrassed. She just shrugged it off, saying “Oh well, great quote, even if the attribution is incorrect.”
I’m sure this is a big bummer for the party poopers out there. Nothing beats an MLK quote to drive home a point. But I’m sure the search is on for another quote. Maybe they’ll hit it out of the park next time with a Ghandi quote.
Nothing makes the anti-war left happier than a good Ghandi quote.