Then I realized that January gives us an opportunity to restore the possibility of who we can be as a people by celebrating the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Because of his vision and his life, he was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39. The stronger male would fight the weaker; the male would dominate the female of the species; the male leader of the tribe would fight off the alien attackers to protect his own. As King spoke in his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, "It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence." The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is seen in Washington, D.C. (NCR photo/Teresa Malcolm)