Sometimes, the incisive thoughts, the thoughts showing some originalism, just don’t come, but a writer wants to say something anyway, even if there’s no great new insight. So it is today for me, as I want to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

What most strikes me about King, apart from his worthy goal (equality before the law) and near-saintly tactics (nonviolent protest), is his nearly otherworldly courage. When I wrote last year about an incident in which his imprisonment played a huge role in the outcome of the 1960 presidential election, my focus on the political fallout gave short shrift to the reality of King’s bravery during the whole situation. Suffice it to say that when he was not just imprisoned for driving with an expired license — really! — but spirited away in the dead of night to a rural detention facility full of violent white criminals, there was good reason to fear he might be murdered while in custody.