Every year, I re-read the I Have a Dream speech and the Letter from the Birmingham Jail on Martin Luther King Day. It is interesting to see which of his words strike my chords of relevance during this annual reflection, based on what is happening in the larger world at the time, and my feelings about it.

These are them, today, from I Have a Dream:

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

In a conversation last week, Vice President Pence compared the work of President Trump to the work of Dr. King by quoting another line of this speech, “Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”

My question is a simple one.

Do the ends justify the means?

And so it goes…until next year.