Even though it can feel safer just to stay put and maintain the status quo, Dr. K reminds us here that doing nothing can be just as risky as doing something—maybe even more so. Doing something is a choice, but so is doing nothing. No matter what, we can't escape responsibility, so we'd better look it in the face.

Do you think Dr. K is actually saying that enthusiasm and sacrifice make success inevitable, or just that success can't happen without them?

Here's a really big question for you: The Civil Rights Movement certainly wasn't the first effort by African Americans to overcome oppression. There were slave insurrections and civil rights efforts long before the CRM proper, and the people involved in them definitely didn't lack passion or bravery. So why did it take so long to achieve civil rights?

Doing the right thing can be hard, but if everyone assumes someone else will pick up the slack, then no one will. Think about it: if something's hard for you, it's probably hard for everyone else, and they're most likely hoping you'll be the one to take care of it. Psychologists call this the bystander effect. It's a real thing.

Here Dr. K acknowledges that his audience will have to make serious sacrifices to participate in this march: they could lose their jobs, get beaten up by the police, who knows. But if no one shows up, there won't be any march—and there won't be any progress.

Dr. K is speaking to an audience of both sanitation workers and community members—that's the "all of you." Why is it so important that everyone take part in the march? The striking workers are a minority within a minority, a disadvantaged group within a disadvantaged group, a small subset of Memphis African Americans. So they can't do it alone. The big question is, how many people need to get involved for change to happen?

Self-interest has its perks: it helps us stay safe, healthy, and successful. But Dr. K warns that, when it comes to helping others, self-interest can get in the way. Like the Good Samaritan, MLK knew all too well that helping people can be dangerous. Many people died rights-martyrs as a direct result of the Civil Rights Movement. But if risk-avoidance had beaten out determination, there wouldn't have been a Civil Rights Movement.

You've heard the phrase "land of opportunity," right? Well, when a society holds itself to a high standard like the Declaration of Independence or Bill of Rights, it's bound to fail sometimes. Just ask the Memphis sanitation workers.

But MLK suggests that failure, along with the freedom to tackle it (19.5–11), is really an opportunity to make things better. So, paradoxically, failing to clear its own high bar is precisely why America is "the land of opportunity."