On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Let Not Arrogance Be Our Doom

In his 1961 farewell address , President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked the American people be strong in their faith that “all nations would reach peace with justice.” He requested further that our country be “unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.” Understanding the vast power at the disposal of the strongest military the world had ever known, the former five-star general of World War II and president made a point with his final words in office, calling on his fellow countrymen to understand the dangers such strength creates without an adherence to collective morals and values. Arrogance, the antithesis of that humility, is pernicious.

It spreads like wildfire, consuming everything around it and leaving in its des