MLK

Martin Luther King could still be alive today and that thought always makes me sad.  His work was not complete and we could have really leaned on King during the last 40 years.  I hope he would have taken on the rights of homosexuals and been a voice of compassion and understanding during the 1980's.  And I hope he would have been a voice of reason and restraint during the two wars that resulted from the September 11th attacks.  I hope he would have spoken against the way this country has turned against Muslims, in the way people do when presented with an 'enemy'.  I know he would have been able to painfully relate. 

In the face of great despair, after each violent attack, and hearing about yet another murder, King would speak of his vision with just as much passion, just as much hope, and just as much commitment.  That is what is so moving to me:  He started each day with a new dose of optimism.  I know it was slowly eaten away through out his day but then he would start anew the next.  It is only in living each day like this that we have any hope of making things more peaceful, more compassionate, and more loving.

Here is part of his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize:

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.


I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!

~ Steph