Had he lived to see it, the Revd Dr Martin Luther king would have been 79 years old next Tuesday, January 15, 2008. Instead, on April 4, 1968 he was assassinated at 39 years old. Most of us will be familiar with King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech which was delivered on August 28, 1963 as the keynote address of the Civil Rights march on Washington DC. Even today, every time I hear this speech I get goose pimples.

2008 has started, almost literally, with a bang. More teenagers knifed to death in London, Birmingham and Manchester, with other incidents reported elsewhere in the country. The tragic shootings of Latisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis at the beginning of 2003 have resulted in my approaching each succeeding New Years with apprehension. And whilst the current spate of killings indicates a preference for the knife over the gun as the weapon of choice, the effects are just as devastating.