My dear friend and high school classmate, June, who now lives in Durham, recently sent me, along with a kind note, a newspaper clipping of one of my “New View” columns, which I wrote during my first life as a weekly columnist.

That column, titled “Morning Stars Will Sing,” appeared in 1978. Now, that’s a long time ago, friends, as we earthlings measure time.

That which was the powerful message (I think) in that column still has meaning for us today. That is my hope.

Here then is that old column, with a much older admonition for us all:

“This is our faith. The psalmist is right. Midnight may come. ‘Weeping may tarry for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ With this faith we will be able to move out of the dark and desolate midnight, and to a beautiful daybreak.

“With this faith we will be able to adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

“With this faith we will be able to transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows and speed up that day when ‘every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ And when this happens morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.’”

“The man who spoke these grandiloquent sentiments was gunned down ten years ago (’68) this past spring. Millions mourned his death; perhaps millions of others either felt no sadness, or actually were gladdened.

“Many said he ‘asked for it.’ Perhaps. People who courageously seek to cause change may indeed ‘ask for it.’

“A decade has passed since this tragic episode in the often violent history of our nation. The travail of Vietnam is behind us. So, too, are the lessons of Watergate.

“Have we, as a nation, learned from these dark events of our recent past? Let us hope we have. How much, remains to be seen, as the saying goes.

“Maybe we haven’t transformed those ‘dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.’

“But maybe, just maybe, we have made a beginning. Putting the beautiful concept of brotherhood of man into practice may be the single most difficult challenge facing us. All of us.

“Change must begin with the desire for change. And that must come from within; from the mind … and then the heart.”

APROPOS — “There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone.”

— Edwin Markham