Martin Luther King said some memorable things in his too-short lifetime, but apparently, a fake quote speeding around the Internet in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing isn't one of them.Here's the quote attributed to King (shown here in Baltimore in 1964): "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
But The Atlantic's Megan McArdle noted that the opening words came from a recent Facebook post. Time points out that the latter half of the quote is a passage from King's book "Strength to Love."
I'm not surprised that there's confusion surrounding the quote. Folks seem skeptical about everything these days. Is Osama still alive (maybe kept in a basement in the Pentagon)? Is Obama's birth certificate a fake? Did we really send a man to the moon? When did we get so overwhelmed by conspiracy theories?
As for me, I take solace in words attributed to the great philospher Groucho Marx: "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.”
Posted by Dave Rosenthal
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