There's a lot being said these days about Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey as we approach the holiday known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Hillary Clinton recently stated that it took a president to get the civil rights movement enacted. I'm surprised she missed the opportunity to say, "It takes a village"; she would have been closer to the truth. A Jan. 15 letter writer gives most of the credit to Hubert Humphrey, perhaps exaggerating the Happy Warrior's contribution just a tad.

And yet, as our letter writer so accurately points out, HHH and LBJ did their work behind the scenes (where it's a lot less messy). King is the one who had garbage thrown at him as he walked down the streets of Cicero, Ill. He's the one who was dragged into jail in Birmingham, Ala.; had bricks thrown at him on his march to Montgomery and a fire hose turned on him in Selma. But no matter what they did to dissuade him, the dream lived on and grew until somebody decided it should die on that balcony in Memphis. That somebody killed the dreamer ... not the dream, because the dream had already become a reality.

We owe much to every one of the dedicated people who played a part in making our country a better place to live. In this sense it does take a village, because we all must play a part. But let us not diminish the role the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. played, because nobody else walked the walk, took the heat or paid the price he did.

BOB HUGE, EDINA