It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.
Interpretation
Strong opinions alone are insufficient; action is required to drive positive change.
This quote emphasizes that merely holding strong beliefs or opinions is not enough if those beliefs do not translate into constructive actions. Coretta Scott King highlights the importance of using one's influence and power for the betterment of society; otherwise, inaction turns one into a contributor to the very issues they oppose.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage civic engagement.
I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy. The civil rights movement thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion. My husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement.
...We have an historic opportunity for a great global healing and renewal. If we will accept the challenge of nonviolent activism with faith, courage, and determination, we can bring this great vision of a world united in peace and harmony from a distant ideal into glowing reality.
I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented.
Sometimes, I am also identified as a civil rights leader or a human rights activist. I would also like to be thought of as a complex, three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood human being with a rich storehouse of experiences, much like everyone else, yet unique in my own way, much like everyone else.
People don't ever have to starve to death; there are solutions. We have failed if we can't eradicate hunger in Africa and Ethiopia.
I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.
I am and always will be a catalyst for change.
Coming back to your native land after an absence of many years is a surprisingly unsettling business, a little like waking from a long coma. Time, you discover, has wrought changes that leave you feeling mildly foolish and out of touch.
When we heard about the hippies, the barely more than boys and girls who decided to try something different ... we laughed at them. We condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. We hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money-bitten, frightened, adult lives
Free public transportation is the single biggest step we could take toward economic mobility, racial equity, and climate justice.
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.
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