Historic Inspirational Leaders

Martin Luther King Jr.
Born January 15th 1929. To me Martin Luther King Jr. is the closest thing we have had in modern times to an Old Testament type prophet, a Moses if you will. King inspires me because he was a reluctant leader who bridged, as if a delineator did not exist, the secular and the sacred. He was a fire starter the ignited a cultural revolution, not for personal power or glory, but for and on behalf of others. He utilized the spoken word, the written word, and the new media of his time, T.V. His “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” is, what I believe, a prophetic manifesto of his revolution. It was written in response to an advertisement that was taken out in the newspaper after a Birmingham rally where King was arrested. The advertisement was taken out by eight fellow clergymen from King’s home state criticizing the demonstrations as extremism. King had no paper to compose his letter on, so he began the letter in his cell in the margins of the very advertisement that was invoking the response. He continued the letter on scraps of paper supplied by a friend, then later finished on a pad that was allowed to be supplied by his attorney. He wrote this letter with only the resource of his heart to draw from and nothing else. He drew from the deep waters of his soul and showed a visible manifestation of the investment and sacrifice that he had made prior to that moment. One cannot call upon something that is within himself that is not there. He was a man who fulfilled his call wholly. He did not play it safe. He did not try to protect his reputation or preserve his power. He put others first. He is the only civilian with a bust in the Capitol Building. King’s footprint forever made a mark on the way this world is because he loved God, loved people and did something about it.
Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Born June 14th 1928. Died October 9th 1967. Died April 4th 1968. Che had an upper middle class upbringing and went to college to become a doctor. Right around graduation Che went, with a friend, on a motorcycle trip around South America. What he saw on that trip forever changed the coarse of his life and that of countless others. He saw “his people”, a revolutionary thought as South Americans saw themselves in the light of their own individual countrymen, suffering from over bearing dictators or capitalist occupiers. Upon completion of his motorcycle tour he could not go back to his comfortable life that he had been building. He wanted to help unify “his people” to throw off oppression. He joined Fidel Castro in his revolution to oust the U.S. puppet president of his nation, Cuba. The Cuban revolution was one of the only revolutions that worked. Albeit it was the wrong answer, at least it was an answer and action to a problem. What inspires me about Che is that he was moved with compassion, an idealist to the end, he couldn’t go back to his life after seeing others suffering. Unfortunately his answer was Communism instead of God. After the Cuban revolution and occupying the number two spot in that government he saw the suffering of others and left to help revolutions in the Congo and others in South America, where he died in the field fighting for other’s countries, his was Argentina. His vision in the end was to start thirteen different “Vietnam Wars” in South America to overthrow oppression and unite the continent.