The news of Americans leaping to the defense of an American treasure doubles as an allegory about our capacity to spring into action when what we hold dear is threatened.

We almost lost a piece of our history on Thursday. In Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn historic district, a woman was seen dousing the home where Martin Luther King Jr. was born with gasoline. Quick action by two passing tourists and the intervention of two retired New York police officers prevented what could have been the total loss of the birthplace of America’s premier civil rights champion.

“If the witnesses hadn’t been there and interrupted what she was doing, I mean, it could have been a matter of seconds before the house was engulfed in flames,” Atlanta Fire Battalion Chief Jerry DeBerry said. I see the story of Americans leaping to the defense of an American treasure as an allegory about who we still are, and our capacity to collectively spring into action when what we hold dear is threatened.