Given its rich diversity, Hawai'i should be counted in the front ranks of communities that benefited from the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr.

And taking part in the building of the beautifully conceived King memorial should be high on our collective agenda, because of what the civil-rights movement meant to many ethnic groups and others who had been marginalized.

The design has been roundly praised. The primary obstacle faced by memorial backers is money. They've still got to raise one-third of the needed $100 million, with the competing charitable drives for Hurricane Katrina survivors and a planned African-American museum tapping the same funding pool.

Hawai'i held its first official Martin Luther King Day celebration in 1989. Lawmakers were convinced that in his final years, King's focus had shifted to a more universal fight against oppression.

The design articulates a passage from King's famous 1963 speech about hewing a "stone of hope" from the "mountain of despair." Those are elements in the memorial to be built on a tree-ringed spot on the banks of the Tidal Basin.

It's a fitting tribute to King's ideals, and gifts from Hawai'i can help bring it to life.