Wednesday, January 22, 2014

OR PERISH AS FOOLS

I can't help wondering what MLK would say if he were confronted with our hyper individualistic, reverse Robin Hood nation. Thunderclaps ahead. 

“If we are to have peace on earth, out loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class and our nations; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now, the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers, or we are all going to perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King from his 1967 Christmas Eve Sermon on Peace.

Funny, when the fundies warn us about the judgment of God they aren’t sending the same message as Dr. King. If want to know where you might find him if he returned to earth tomorrow go by the words of Coretta Scott King in the original intro to the 1968 collection of speeches.

“the killers of the dream could end his life with a single bullet, but not all the bullets in all the arsenals can effect his death. We will  not have to search for him. Listen for him in the protests of the poor – black and white. Look for him in the places where social evils are nonviolently resisted by proud brave people. Listen for him in the ever increasing chorus of committed individuals. Remember him as a man who tried to be “a drum major for justice, a drum major for peace, a drum major for righteousness,” Remember him as a man who refused to lose faith in the ultimate redemption of mankind.”


Coretta Scott King in the intro to Trumpet of Conscience. 

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