I like to listen to NPR on the way to and from work, mostly because life is full, time is short and I’m persuaded of the aerobic benefits attached to shouting at the radio. I can usually count on a good workout whenever Robert Reich or Daniel Schorr do one of their little guest spots.

Juan Williams, however, is an inevitable let down. The guy’s smooth, knowledgeable and if he has even a nugget of personal political preference he hides it in his broadcasts so carefully that Mel Fisher himself would have a hard time finding it. I don’t get to shout at all.

He’s not just a prominent journalist of course – the African-American is also an author of several well-respected and popular books on race in America. Which is a tough combination to pull off. So it was interesting today, on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis to read what Williams had to say about the Barrack Obama candidacy, and what it means to our Republic. For those of us too young or distracted, he first reminds us how King challenged not only the dominant white culture, but how he challenged blacks as well:

While speaking to black people, King never condescended to offer Rev. Wright-style diatribes or conspiracy theories. He did not paint black people as victims. To the contrary, he spoke about black people as American patriots who believed in the democratic ideals of the country, in nonviolence and the Judeo-Christian ethic, even as they overcame slavery, discrimination and disadvantage. King challenged white America to do the same, to live up to their ideals and create racial unity. He challenged white Christians, asking them how they could treat their fellow black Christians as anything but brothers in Christ.

When King spoke about the racist past, he gloried in black people beating the odds to win equal rights by arming “ourselves with dignity and self-respect.” He expressed regret that some black leaders reveled in grievance, malice and self-indulgent anger in place of a focus on strong families, education and love of God. Even in the days before Congress passed civil rights laws, King spoke to black Americans about the pride that comes from “assuming primary responsibility” for achieving “first class citizenship.”

Jump to the link to find what Williams thinks of Obama’s contribution to our national dialogue on race, as well as a fitting reminder of the magnitude of the loss our nation suffered 40 years ago today.