The man dedicated to justice, peace and brother-hood.
I bought this little quote book many years ago, I'll post ones that stand out to me here. Dr King has more wisdom than do I. He has an optimism and a realism that escapes me. He has lived a history and injustice that I haven't seen. He has a character and faith stronger than mine. Let us all strive to be better, do better, share better and love better.
" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother in-law"
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence"
"If man is called to be a streetsweeper, he shoudl sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well"
"We are not makers of history. We are made by history"
"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary"
"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law"
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everwhere"
"I decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear"
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend"
"Hate paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life, love illuminates it"
"Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness"
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step"
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"
"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree"
"If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive"
"The time is right to always do what is right"
"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live"
"If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control"
"A lie cannot live"
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant"
"We may have all come on different ships, but we'er in the same boat now"
"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan"
"The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be"
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed"
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy"
"A riot is the language of the unheard"
"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal"
"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear"
"The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win an their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility"
"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and dissolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos"
"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people"
"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him"
"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong you cannot be too conservative"
"All progress is precarious and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem"
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools"
"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man"
[Edited on 4/5/2018 by nebish]
Thx for acknowledging. Here's a couple more.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.The Trumpet of Conscience"
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend" MLK
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Sadly those wise words have been ignored by those who use race as a political weapon.
He was ahead of his time. Some people have hi-jacked and bastardized his message. He wanted equality, some others want supremacy and domination, where if they win, the scales would still be lopsided, it would just be a different group in charge of the other group.
In my opinion, The Black Lives Matter Movement is a black supremacy movement. It is an evolution of the Black Power movement from former days. Dr. King's message was that there are black people who have good character so they should NOT be discriminated against because of the color of their skin. The people now who want to hi-jack his movement WANT special rights because of their skin color. He wanted equality, other groups now want Superiority.
The Black Lives Matter movement, claims their lives matter because they are black, it should be ALL LIVES MATTER, don't hate me because I am black. But that is not how their movement is.
Same thing with the LGBT communities. The discrimination in housing, jobs has ended, so why do they need to use their sexual preferences to FORCE their views on other people? What you do in your sex life is between you and your partner. Don't make it a national/political issue.
That is what is wrong. People using their skin color, sexuality or anything else to further a political agenda.
Live your lives, treat others as you want to be treated, it is that simple.
[Edited on 4/7/2018 by gina]
He was ahead of his time. Some people have hi-jacked and bastardized his message
Sort of like what you are doing here, using a simple thread that honors the MLK 50th to blow smoke about whatever, instead of maybe posting a quote from the man. At least your pal Mule had the decency to pretend he liked an MLK quote, even if it was only to launch some little personal grumble.
MLK meant business, revolution, he was really angry, he wasn't the love and peaceflower Uncle Tom that white America has processed into a sweet little political twinkie to scold modern pissed off blacks.
Try this one:
Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.
— Where Do We Go From Here, 1967
Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a similar mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn. The reality of substantial investment to assist Negroes into the twentieth century, adjusting to Negro neighbors and genuine school integration, is still a nightmare for all too many white Americans…These are the deepest causes for contemporary abrasions between the races. Loose and easy language about equality, resonant resolutions about brotherhood fall pleasantly on the ear, but for the Negro there is a credibility gap he cannot overlook. He remembers that with each modest advance the white population promptly raises the argument that the Negro has come far enough. Each step forward accents an ever-present tendency to backlash.
There are truth in those words.
King's views were no doubt radical then, as some still remain today, but had a message and a way of addressing and appealing to blacks and whites, speaking to truth to power. But come the later years of his life, him and his message had fallen out of favor with both blacks and whites. I wonder what his internal struggle must've been at the time, to stay relevant with the times? Or to stay true to himself and his nonviolent beliefs? Adopting more of an economic justice for all impoverished people perhaps at the expense of focusing solely on his people; Possibly the later years of his life were in fact more difficult for him than his earlier efforts, physically, mentally, emotionally. The rise of other groups in the civil rights movement tended to marginalize King's platform. Al Sharpton said this week that "in 1968 it wasn't cool to be with Martin Luther King" as more newer militant wings seemed to take over the movement.
I haven't faced such a struggle, but I can only imagine the hardship or discouragement of offering love and peace to an enemy or an oppressor only to be kicked or spit on time and time again. More often, hate fights hate. King's message is courageous and delivers an appeal to bring down racial and social barriers. But it is a long fight, with many lost battles along the way. There comes the competing message, to knock down those walls by force. The message is fractured and so is the fight, sometimes causing more negative opinions than what would yield more support.
I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply. We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house. I’m afraid that America has lost the moral vision she may have had, and I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house."
Harry Belafonte asked "What should we do?"
"Become the firemen.” King said, “Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”
50 years later no doubt the house is still burning.
Yep. Long story short, his commitment to nonviolence set the bar impossibly high for mortal man. He took a great shot at peaceful revolution though, and shook the foundations of the status quo. He was a clear and present danger, because he was building an army with a spiritual arsenal that couldn't be defeated on the material plane with violence. So he was executed.
I doubt anyone, white or black, other than an enlightened few with nothing to lose like the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa are capable of survival in a world where King's dream is reality. We would pretty much be looking at voluntary communism enforced from within individual conscience focused on unconditional love. A communism of free individuals. Tall order for a planet full of testosterone-crazed chimps.
MLK will most assuredly be in that number when the Saints Go Marching In.
It's the same as the paradox of the teachings of Jesus: at best we can hold the ideals as a check to our baser instincts.
Best I can figure on this gray rainy Sunday morning.
