"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
The above is a quotation of the great Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and it is one that embodies the way he lived his life. In my mind, the love of justice is what he lived and died for, and that makes him and his work an appropriate reflection for today's blog. As America honors him with a holiday, celebrating his life and legacy, many people reflect on his words and his works as they have helped change America forever. He had a wisdom that speaks through the ages and a love for people that led him to live and give his life in pursuit of a better tomorrow for all of us. Let us all find that thing for which our lives were created and make sure we have something to live for. Anyone can exist and make a check to survive, but I say, push for something higher. Even if you have to start small, plant the seed of your dream/passion and go for it. The world needs what you have.
"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."
Hatred is such a poison, and it's unfortunate that much of life is taught in terms of hate and not love. And I'm not just talking about our obsession with "haters," though that is definitely a part of the concern and conversation. I mean, why do we find it so difficult to celebrate when others achieve? Is it because we ourselves are too scared to try or feel inadequate to pursue our own dreams, so we envy those who do what we think we can't? But this hate on a small scale only reflects the poison of hate that exists on a global scale and is perpetuated by the media and the government alike. It's the kind of hate that can be covert and cunning but that denies people access to basic necessities and life, especially when those doing the denying have more than their grandchildren will ever need. It's the kind of hate that causes someone in a blue t-shirt to shoot someone with a red t-shirt because they are fighting for a block that doesn't belong to either of them while the real owner of the block lives in his beach house, collecting his money, and not giving thought to the problems of those "lesser folks," even though it's his government that caused the poverty of the area. It's the kind of hate that masks itself as charity and borders on indifference. This is the hate that is choking people with their own riches, shooting people with rage-filled guns, landing children in cemeteries, and members of Congress in the hospital. Until we learn to embrace and respect the basic dignity of every human being, our actions will continue to say that we hate each other, even as we stand side by side or hand in hand.
"Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
Without love, there is no way that we will have peace in the world. Because peace talks only involve government officials who get hidden away when war happens and not the civilians and people on the ground who have to wake up and go to sleep with the sounds of bombs and gunshots, peace will be hard to find. Because ego often takes a higher priority than general welfare, peace will be hard to find. Because money is always more important than the lives of others, especially if the others are already poor, peace will be hard to find. Because war is too profitable an exercise, especially when the place being fought has resources that we want, peace will be hard to find. Because when we come to the table to discuss peace, we bring our bodyguards, we have our guns on the table, and our fingers dangerously close to the big red button, peace will never be found. Until we learn how to love first and live with an ethic of love and not commerce or "diplomacy" or power, we will always be fearful that the other guy is out to get us, so our weapons and army need to be bigger and stronger and able to kill faster than the other guy. We will live with a mentality of preemptive strike as opposed to being able to do what we were taught in Kindergarten - sit down and talk it out. If I love you, I cannot blow away half your country, even if I don't like some of what you do. We can agree to disagree like actual adults. I'm not going to legally mug you or rape you of your resources just because I feel I need them and you don't want to roll over and surrender all you have to me....
Thank you, Dr King, for all that you said, did, and give in defense of justice and pursuit of love.
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