Recently a friend of mine, who I'll call "Bob", was waiting for a bus to take him to his job on Gallatin Road. Bob is a white guy who has been clean and sober in the rehab where I work for almost a year. Bob recently got a job working on cars and his appearance is rather unkempt.

Tuesday Bob was waiting for a bus to take him to work at a bus stop on Gallatin Road near I-24. While he was waiting the traffic slowed in front of him and a woman rolled down her window and handed him a ten dollar bill. Bob said: "For a minute there, I thought your God (He doesn't believe in the Christian God) had smiled on me." Suddenly a white policeman drove up, got out of his car, and told Bob he was panhandling.

Bob replied that a woman just handed him some money, but he didn't ask her for it. He told the officer that he was waiting for a bus to take him to work. He unzipped his jacket and showed the policeman his company's logo on his shirt. Bob also showed the officer a name badge that he was wearing that had both Bob's name and his company's name on it.

Instead of listening to Bob, the officer put him in handcuffs and made Bob get in the back seat of the police car. When Bob showed the officer his ID, the officer saw some money in his wallet and said: "You make a lot of money doing this!" Would the officer have done this if Bob had been in a business suit?

The officer presented Bob with two citations: one for "soliciting from the sidewalk" and the other for "criminal trespassing". The citation numbers are: SC664314 and SC664315. Now he has to go get a court date and get fingerprinted on February 12.

Bob is a quiet, humble man. The next morning he was afraid to go back to the bus stop, but he felt he had to go to work even though he was tormented with fear.

Was this fair? Is it legal in America for a police officer to humiliate and give citations for "criminal trespassing" to someone waiting to catch a bus to work?

Can anybody think of a culture, nation, tribal group, kingdom, or village that has practiced same sex marriage before our time? I can't think of even one. I have also asked this question to several people and nobody can think of one. Can you?

If same sex marriage has never been practiced in human history until our day, doesn't that make it an extremely radical idea? Were all the cultures, nations, and tribal groups of the past ignorant on this issue? Or did they know something we don't?

Does birth bestow value on a disposable blob of tissue? Does birth magically turn a worthless fetus into a valuable human being? Even "partial birth" will not save a baby from abortion in our culture.

If people are worthless in the womb, why should we have any value walking the earth? Look around. Human life has been devalued. People disrespect one another -- read the comments and forums on tennessean.com and observe the shameless name calling and hostility toward fellow humans. Notice the flood of daily violence against our fellow humans that has numbed us and made us hard hearted. Child abuse and neglect is rampant. We struggle with self-hate and self-destructive behaviors.

Unless we begin to value and respect human life from conception to the last breath, we will continue to spiral into worthlessness.

Human beings are incredible, creatures. We are gloriously designed and crafted to function extremely well in this physical world. From one extreme to the other, humans physically adapt -- from the frozen Arctic to the steaming tropics, from extreme poverty and deprivation to great wealth and ease, from concentration camps to five-star resorts, from terrible illness to robust health. Humans are amazing.

Yet beyond physical wonders, we have the ability to think, to communicate, to understand natural processes, to feel and show compassion, to change our environment, to overcome inherited tendencies, to sacrifice our lives for others.

So why can't such capable creatures live out Martin Luther King's dream that a man not be judged by "the color of his skin, but by the content of his character?" Why does our culture still care about skin color -- still write off people just because their skin is darker? And why does our culture praise and celebrate celebrities and others who promote themselves, lie, disrespect others, spew out profanity, use drugs, stir up lust in others, cheat, wallow in wealth, and use others as sex toys?

It seems like we don't care about a person's character anymore. We accept all lifestyles now except those who follow King and appreciate good character. Those who still care about character are considered crazy or prejudice.

Meanwhile millions of black Americans still struggle in despair and hopelessness. They are born into neighborhoods and families ravaged by lawlessness. They are raised by people who have given up hope and lost their character in the daily struggle to survive. Violence and drug abuse ravages them and takes their lives. Sex abuse passes the hopelessness from generation to generation.

But I still believe in Martin's dream! The man went to the mountain top and saw a better way. "Free at last, free at last!" No more being enslaved to self-destruction, despair, crime, and hopelessness. White people and black people, hand in hand, color washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. Righteousness exalting the nation. Peace and joy, love for one another. Service, sacrifice, sharing. Living together in daily honesty, respect, humility, and compassion. The hurting and broken being personally mentored by those who are doing a little better.

Thank you, Martin, for inspiring me with your life and with your dream. I still believe.

Motivation Quotation: "My passion is caring about those who don't have enough to make it through life in society. It's about poor people and families that need help raising their children. That's why I come to work every day, that's why I want to make a difference." --Luz Vega-Marquiz

Motivation Builder: Trying to help others is a real motivation builder. It takes the focus of your attention away from yourself and your problems and puts it on others and their needs. As you make efforts (even small ones) to help others, you begin to feel that your life has real meaning. You are not just randomly killing time while waiting for time to kill you. Instead, your life is making a difference for some specific hurting human beings.

As you help others, you find that your craving for personal pleasure and satisfaction is being swept away in loving service to others. The love and gratitude being returned to you is intoxicating. "Well done, good and faithful servant." You had the courage to look into the mass of overwhelming human need and to risk reaching out into the sea of mankind's despair to offer kindness, hope and help to an individual human being.

Everybody struggles. Help someone today. See his or her need Hear his story Identify with her plight Give him kindness and help today. Take her into your circle of friendship. Cry with him. Experience the hope-producing passion of heart-felt caring and self-denying service for fellow human beings.