In the waking horror of an earthquake ravaged Haiti in ruins, I sat as many have, in front of a television screen. In shock, watching the most heart wrenching images , I was praying for people I would probably never meet, hoping that there would be more rescued than recovered, hoping they would be given the essentials that they desperately need, hoping they will find the strength and support to rebuild.....Seeking out ways to contribute...
Immediately after the quake the world responded.
Makes me wonder how is it that a natural disaster of this magnitude could inspire so many to reach out and want to do what is right.....and yet, when it comes to man made disasters, the approach can be so different, even if the circumstances and the urgency is as intense. Dr. Martin Luther King once said "Whatever effects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality"....I suppose it is also the interrelated structure of humanity. How can we claim to be a global community when so many of it's neighborhoods are living in the most unbelievable turmoil, poverty and violence. Lately even in our own backyards we have seen families lose their jobs, their homes, their livelihoods.... How could it not be that "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere?
I think back to the times that helped shaped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's character. I think back to the images, the segregation, and the intense courage it took to stand up for basic human rights. "We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" he said, and truth be told, I cannot remember the speeches of those against civil rights, but I remember the images of people who you could tell raised their families in churches and paid their taxes, looking straight ahead, just walking past the dogs and the water and the non violent protesters being violently attacked. " The ultimate tragedy" he said " is not the oppression and cruelty of bad people, but the silence over that by good people"....
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"...
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter". Perhaps we need to think about what really matters on a global level. Where our responsibilities begin and end, how do we define ourselves really? The UN has a Universal Declaration of Human Rights that specifically details article by article each freedom, each right....and yet there are so many breaches of that Declaration by so many nations, including our own. Some obviously much more severe than others.....And still, how do you address such overwhelming situations, when you are overwhelmed? How do we begin to address the worlds problems when we can't seem to address our own, ( or even hold ourselves accountable) and how could we not begin to do either? "All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem".......MLK Jr
I look back on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's most brilliant speeches, his life, his challenges, the courage it had to have taken to have moved ahead and tackled a very volatile subject for the sake of his children and all children. His words are sadly as relevant today as they were 40 somewhat years ago for different reasons. " I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he would die for he isn't fit to live"......In the Christian faith ( I am Catholic) we are taught that Christ died for our sins. In dying He gave us eternal life. I believe he died for the same reason Martin Luther King Jr died, Abraham Lincoln died, and every brave enlightened person who fought for the basic human rights die....because there are not enough people willing to stand up with these most prolific of teachers and say "enough" to what is so fundamentally wrong within our society. They too have died, in essence, to give us all a better life here on earth.
"Every man must decided if he is to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness" We all have choices. " A right delayed is a right denied" How many rights are being denied right now?
He said "Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted", but at this point, I believe it lies in every hand, and in every heart for real salvation, for redemption.....
We need more Martin Luther King Jr's. We need the men and women we have elected to begin to take their offices a little more seriously than their pockets or their campaign contributions. We need clear leadership. I am not giving hope on my man President Obama, but I am making an effort to be more aware of just how the fabric of humanity is woven and interwoven.......
"Hatred paralyzes life, love releases it. Hatred confuses life, love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life, love illuminates it.....MLK Jr
" I have decided to stick with love, hate is too great a burden to bare"........MLK Jr
" Everything that is done in this world is done by hope".......MLK Jr.....
And everything that fuels hope is found in love..........including courage.....
Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr......
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