Dear Antiochians,
On this day there is much going on in the world, and many of us are feeling profound emotions. In the midst of this, I want to take a moment to draw attention to the nationwide holiday being observed today, and the man whose words and actions it honors: Martin Luther King, Jr.
You may know that Coretta Scott King was an Antiochian. She graduated from the College in 1951. In 1965, she and her husband traveled to Yellow Springs so that he could give Antioch’s Commencement Address. I encourage you to listen to the full address at WYSO, Antioch’s former radio station. And to learn more about the context of King’s visit, you might want to consult this portfolio of early Antioch images from the Antioch Alumni Magazine. Today, however, I want to draw your attention to a story that King told the graduating Antioch students towards the end of his Commencement Address. I feel that his words have just as much resonance today as they did 60 years ago. Here is what King said:
“Some years ago this famous novelist died. Among his papers was found a list of suggested story plots for future stories, the most prominently underscored being this one: A widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together. This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a big house—a great, world house—in which we have to live together: Black and White, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Theists and Humanists, Muslim and Hindu—a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interests, who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.
This is our opportunity. This is our great challenge. And I submit to you this morning, that as we go out in this day ahead, in this New Age that is emerging, the great challenge facing us is to be participants, involved participants, in the struggle to make brotherhood and justice realities in our day and in our age.
There are still too many detached spectators. There are still too many silent onlookers. But in the words of the first President of this College, the great Mann, “Be ashamed to die until you have gained some victory for humanity.” This means becoming involved in all of the struggles of mankind, to make this nation, to make this world better. It means that we must develop a sort of divine discontent.”

There is much to be discontent within this world. And there are many struggles for us to be involved with. I wish you each strength as you lend your labors to a world that needs you.