Symbols are very very important.
Think of the Cross and the Torah. Peoples die in order to protect their symbols from desecration and profanation and ridicule. For those Americans who have not forgotten their history Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the single most important American human rights leader of the past century. He moved a nation from an era of incredible racial economic and political injustice to one of greater racial justice and sensitivity. Dr. King did this by an appeal to the conscience of the American people and moved us to change without the widespread bloodshed that such radical revolutions usually involve.