I suspect that if pressed, we would all be able to list at least one person we could name as a hero. Mine is Martin Luther King, Jr. His ministry, his life, and his death have had a profound influence on me. He is, in my life, a giant. I read and reread his works and have made a point of finding people who knew him so they could tell me about his work. As part of my exploration of the life of one of our greatest saints, I planned and took a pilgrimage to Atlanta, Georgia, where Reverend King is buried. I visited the church where he preached, toured his home, visited his gravesite, and then went to a small museum there near his grave.

It was a powerful experience for me; but perhaps nothing shook me so deeply as something that happened at the end of my time there. As I was ending my littl…