The Wisdom of MLK Jr.

Take a look at the front-page of the New York Times.

We are implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part of the problem.
Over the past three weeks a third front has opened — against Iran.
Saddam Hussein’s half-brother ended with the hangman’s noose severing his head from his body after he fell through the trapdoor.

I want our President to consider Martin Luther King’s advice.

“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

I do not suggest that America’s president can solve our problems in Iraq by rejecting revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The people of Iraq would need to adopt that evolved method along with George W. Bush. But our president needs to take King’s words into his heart.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.- Martin Luther Ling Jr.

Consider this. King, against all odds, got results.

5 Comments

Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 4:46 pm

King has a word for us activists well:

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; selfpurification; and direct action.

By selfpurification, he meant being ready to meet hate with love, to resist the temptation to strike back when we are struck at. I think the left has quite a bit to learn from his example. He spent a lot of days in jail and had a lot of time to read and contemplate. And he was a thoughtful man to begin with.

Bush isn’t the only problem. As King wrote in his Birmingham Jail letter:

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

…

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in the generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

Read the whole thing here.

Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 4:48 pm

…and paid for that privilege with his life. Who among us is so bold?

Too few.

alohaleezy on January 15, 2007 at 6:03 pm

because he was selfless.
- Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 7:06 pm
  
  King said, “Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.”
  
  He did, on both counts.
  
  Source

soj on January 15, 2007 at 7:56 pm

I think that’s it – I dont think MLK succeded against “all odds”. I think if Bush’s strategy in Iraq succeeded, THAT would be against the odds.

MLK’s strategy, just as Gandhi’s, just as many others – worked because the odds ARE in favor of it. It just seems “inconceivable” that peace works but yet time and again it does.

Pax

Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 4:46 pm

King has a word for us activists well:

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; selfpurification; and direct action.

By selfpurification, he meant being ready to meet hate with love, to resist the temptation to strike back when we are struck at. I think the left has quite a bit to learn from his example. He spent a lot of days in jail and had a lot of time to read and contemplate. And he was a thoughtful man to begin with.

Bush isn’t the only problem. As King wrote in his Birmingham Jail letter:

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

…

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in the generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

Read the whole thing here.
Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 4:48 pm

…and paid for that privilege with his life. Who among us is so bold?

Too few.

Too few.
- alohaleezy on January 15, 2007 at 6:03 pm
  
  because he was selfless.
  - Real History Lisa on January 15, 2007 at 7:06 pm
    
    King said, “Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.”
    
    He did, on both counts.
    
    Source
soj on January 15, 2007 at 7:56 pm

I think that’s it – I dont think MLK succeded against “all odds”. I think if Bush’s strategy in Iraq succeeded, THAT would be against the odds.

MLK’s strategy, just as Gandhi’s, just as many others – worked because the odds ARE in favor of it. It just seems “inconceivable” that peace works but yet time and again it does.

Pax

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