Good morning, all.

Associated Press reporter Allen Breed put together an interesting idea: Four decades after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. fell to an assassin’s bullet, colleagues, biographers and followers offer many answers to the question: What if he had lived?

I encourage you to read and discuss this piece (which we peppered with some local comments as well). Some great thoughts. My favorite came from journalist, author and commentator Juan Williams, who taught me for a semester at Eastern Illinois University.

In the 40 years since he was shot dead on a Memphis hotel balcony, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has become a political Rorshach.

Embraced by the far left as an anti-war revolutionary, beloved by centrists as a nonviolent advocate of moderate change and even co-opted by the right as a man who proved that African-Americans can succeed without help from the government, King’s legacy means something different to everyone.

I reflected on that notion as I sat through the Athens Area Human Relation Council’s annual MLK Jr. awards banquet.

Numerous people spoke, and each shared a different view of King. Commissioner Kelly Girtz recalled reading that, when a reporter asked King’s secretary what would surprise people most about him, she responded that he loved laughter.