[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 25 (Thursday, February 14, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            THE KING LEGACY AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL SERVICE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JESSE L. JACKSON, JR.

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 14, 2008

  Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring 
attention to ``The King Legacy Award for International Service.'' In 
January 2007, Greek Ambassador Alexandros Mallias received this coveted 
award for his contributions to peace in the Balkans, to Greek-American 
relations, and to efforts to prevent such abhorrent practices as human 
trafficking, which is a modern form of slavery.
  Accepting the award, the Greek ambassador spoke of Dr. King's 
struggle for freedom and against discrimination in the context of the 
search for justice memorialized by classic Greek tragic playwrights, 
like Aeschylus in his play ``Prometheus Bound'' and Sophocles in his 
play ``Antigone.'' He also highlighted the inspiration given by Dr. 
King to struggles for democracy worldwide, including Greece during 
military dictatorship in the late 1960s, and against discrimination, 
noting also that AHEPA, the largest and oldest Greek-American 
association, was founded in Atlanta, GA in 1922, precisely to defend 
Greek immigrants from persecution and segregation.
  Below is an article Ambassador Mallias wrote on Dr. King and the 
Greek classics.

               [From the Washington Times, Jan. 29, 2008]

                    Dr. King and the Greek Classics

                       (By Alexandros P. Mallias)

       This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the death of 
     Martin Luther King, Jr. His death on April 4, 1968, found my 
     country in the midst of one of its darkest hours, as the one 
     year anniversary of an oppressive military dictatorship 
     neared.
       With my fellow citizens living under military rule and 
     deprived of the very basic freedoms, I was inspired by the 
     people of Birmingham, Ala., of Memphis and Atlanta, who, in a 
     most dignified way, poured into the streets, standing up for 
     what was rightly theirs.
       Across the Atlantic, the civil-rights movement reached us 
     in the clarion voice of Martin Luther King Jr., and hope 
     stirred in the hearts of many Greek people like myself that 
     ``We'', too, ``Shall Overcome.''
       Upon my arrival in Washington as Greece's ambassador, and 
     influenced by what I call the current ``Golden Age for the 
     Classics'' in the United States, I have gone back to the 
     staples of my education with new appreciation--Sophocles, 
     Plato, Homer, Heraclitus, Thucydides. And I realized that the 
     Rev. King's speeches and homilies are fraught with references 
     to the Greek classics.
       I pored over his writings and speeches and realized his was 
     no simple preaching. I began to sense he had a profound 
     understanding of what we call the ``classics.'' In his Nobel 
     acceptance speech, he spoke of Greek literature, of Homer and 
     the temptresses Sirens, of Orpheus--not in dry academic 
     fashion, but as part and parcel of his understanding of the 
     world.
       As the beneficiary of a classical education, as were most 
     young Greeks of my generation, the words of Dr. King brought 
     to mind great orators of ancient Greece--Demosthenes, for 
     one, who had to overcome his own particular limitations.
       In his sermon ``Loving Your Enemies,'' delivered at Dexter 
     Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 17, 1957, Dr. 
     King expounded on the power and comprehensiveness of the 
     Greek language, explaining how Greek ``comes to our aid 
     beautifully in giving us the real meaning and depth of the 
     whole philosophy of love . . . for you see the Greek language 
     has three words for love . . . eros . . . a sort of aesthetic 
     love. Plato talks about it a great deal in his dialogues, a 
     sort of yearning of the soul for the realm of the gods. Then 
     the Greek language talks about philia . . . the intimate 
     affection between personal friends. The Greek language comes 
     out with another word for love. It is the word agape . . . 
     the understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all 
     men. It is a love that seeks nothing in return.''
       Erudite men and women have researched the education of Dr. 
     King, concluding that he studied the ancient Greek classics 
     at length and drew inspiration not only from the Bible, but 
     also from ancient Greek philosophers, playwrights and 
     political figures.
       Dr. King's ``Letter From Birmingham Jail'' of April 16, 
     1963, was addressed to his fellow clergymen and expounded 
     upon his own theory of civil disobedience: ``I submit that an 
     individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is 
     unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment 
     . . . is in reality expressing the highest respect for law'' 
     brought to mind Antigone, a reluctant but inevitably brave 
     heroine, in Sophocles' namesake play, who said: ``I will not 
     obey an unjust law, and if something happens because of it--
     so be it.''
       This was not wasted on classics professor Lewis Sussman of 
     the University of Florida, who wrote extensively on this 
     connection.
       I need no further proof of the inspiration Dr. King 
     imparted from the classics than his own words in the last 
     speech of his life, ``I've Been to the Mountaintop,'' which 
     resounded around the world on April 3, 1968, just one day 
     before his assassination in Memphis: ``I would take my mental 
     flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, 
     through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in 
     spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would 
     move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I 
     would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and 
     Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed 
     the great and eternal issues of reality.''
       Dr. King's words continue to inspire me. And what I impart 
     from him is similar to what I imparted from the ancient Greek 
     tradition that the ``good life'' is the one in which the 
     individual partakes in the responsibility and concerns of all 
     society.

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