One of the blessings of legal holidays is that they have the possibility of stirring thoughts of what we celebrate and why we do it. At least, the possibility is there, although I confess it sometimes gets lost in the commercial shopping frenzy that is aroused by each national pause. Have you noticed that SALES is attached to most holidays?

This year, it seems most fitting to me that we reflect on the gift Dr. King left us, the gift of seeing with clearer eyes, or rather, of hearing with new ears the power of the spoken word.

Bludgeoned as we are by a national political frenzy of words in this election year, it would not be amiss for us to focus on words that can uplift and inspire us to action, rather than on words that denigrate another.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a unique gift and he used it all well. He took his people's love of the heard word and reinvigorated it. One of the things I most regret about the speed of modern communication is that we have no time  to hear each other. We so seldom shape a sentence or mold a phrase with the purpose of having it resonate in our listener's ears. Politics has often become a game of verbal whiplash, of searching for those zingers that will slay an opponent.

How about a resonance of inspiration, of finding the phrases that might inspire a citizenry to action by working for their own futures rather than confiding them to the sharpest-tongued of the contenders?

I have been struck recently by politicians reaching for phrases from some of our most loved national hymns to awaken the imagination of their hearers. I am not advocating words as a substitute for action, but rather reminding us of the power of word craft to move the heart. Have we become too accustomed to seeing rather than hearing?

I would love the observance of this national day of remembrance to reawaken in us an appreciation of Dr. King's legacy of what is most human -- our ability to speak to each other. It is to, not at, that King so well understand. This is worth more than one day of reflection.