Martin Luther King Jr. was a man with a great capacity for hope, a virtue that our war-torn world desperately needs.

More than 42 years ago, King accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a degree of puzzlement. Why was he being so honored, he wondered, when the fight against racial injustice was raging in America?

He concluded: The award recognized the potential of nonviolence to overcome oppression and transform society, even though that potential had not yet been realized.

What's astounding is that a man who fell victim to violence nurtured such intense faith in the future of humanity.

In the midst of national turmoil over the number of U.S. youths sent to battlegrounds of the Middle East, peace seems more remote than ever. But today's Martin Luther King Day observance offers Americans an opportunity to tap some of King's vast stores of hope. In fact, we have made progress in the civil rights battle he fought, and the power of nonviolence has been proven, many times over.

Peace still shines, dimly, as the ultimate prize. On accepting the award Dec. 10, 1964, King announced his refusal to accept the inevitability of endless war. "I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners," he said.

We can hope that enough of that optimism remains in today's world to continue his work as curators of peace, even if we are not its true owners.