On January 16th, 2023 we took note of and celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a ‘Day of Service’ in the United States. I was privileged to have participated in a march a few days prior to honor Dr. King’s activism (see attached pictures). This year it was Dr. King’s daughter, Bernice King that stirred my thoughts through her social media post. She wrote, “If you’re going to quote and authentically honor my father on #MLKDay, commit to embracing a ‘World House’ perspective. Determine how you’ll disrupt unjust systems and thinking with nonviolent strategy. Support policies that reflect higher consciousness”.
Amen. That statement drove me to dig up the book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, wherein Dr. King explains the ‘World House’ perspective.
It was one of those books full of thought-provoking statements and ideas regarding social change, necessary social change that stirs the soul. I’ll share many of the quotes I took from the book below, however I urge you consider these points by Dr. King regarding the ‘World House’ perspective;
“Arnold Toynbee has said that some twenty-six civilizations have risen upon the face of the earth. Almost all of them have descended into the junk heaps of destruction. The decline and fall of these civilizations, according to Toynbee, was not caused by external invasions but by internal decay. They failed to respond creatively to the challenges impinging upon them. If Western civilization does not now respond constructively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men.”
“We are inevitably our brother’s keeper because we are our brother’s brother. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
“Therefore I suggest that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject for study and for serious experimentation in every field of human conflict, by no means excluding the relations between nations.”
“These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born.”
“The answer was only to be found in persistent trying, perpetual experimentation, and persevering together”.
You can read the book yourself online for free at the following link, https://www.uni-five.com/upload/doc/82818file.pdf
Consider these quotes from the book to bless your being:
“Truth is found neither in traditional capitalism nor in classical Communism. Each represents a partial truth. Capitalism fails to see the truth in collectivism. Communism fails to see the truth in individualism. Capitalism fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is personal. The good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of Communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism.”
“To guard ourselves from bitterness we need the vision to see in this generation’s ordeals the opportunity to transform both ourselves and American society”.
“Thus America, with segregation obstruction and majority indifference, silently nibbled away at a promise of true equality”.
“Social justice and progress are the absolute guaranteers of riot prevention. There is no other answer. Constructive social change will bring certain tranquility, evasions will merely encourage turmoil”.
“The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.”
“a slogan “Power for Poor People” would be much more appropriate than the slogan “Black Power.””
“Alfred the Great are still true: “Power is never good unless he who has it is good.””
“Violence is the antithesis of creativity and wholeness. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible…Nonviolence provides a healthy way to deal with understandable anger.”
“Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus… I would rather be a man of conviction than a man of conformity.”
“The greatest blasphemy of the whole ugly process was that the white man ended up making God his partner in the exploitation of the Negro”.
“No human being is perfect. In our individual and collective lives every expression of greatness is followed, not by a period symbolizing completeness, but by a comma implying partialness. Following every a¤rmation of greatness is the conjunction “but.” Naaman “was a great man,” says the Old Testament, “but . . .”—that “but” reveals something tragic and disturbing—“but he was a leper.”
“Now you are free.” What greater injustice could society perpetrate?… Yet this is exactly what America did to the Negro. In 1863 the Negro was given abstract freedom expressed in luminous rhetoric. But in an agrarian economy he was given no land to make liberation concrete…As Frederick Douglass came to say, “Emancipation granted the Negro freedom to hunger, freedom to winter amid the rains of heaven. Emancipation was freedom and famine at the same time.””
“The ubiquitous discrimination in his daily life tells him that laws on paper, no matter how imposing their terms, will not guarantee that he will live in “the masterpiece of civilization.””
“A people who began a national life inspired by a vision of a society of brotherhood can redeem itself. But redemption can come only through a humble acknowledgment of guilt and an honest knowledge of self.”
“If America would come to herself and return to her true home, “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” she would give the democratic creed a new authentic ring, enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men.”
“To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”
“If we reversed investments and gave the armed forces the antipoverty budget, the generals could be forgiven if they walked off the battlefield in disgust.”
“No worker can maintain his morale or sustain his spirit if in the market place his capacities are declared to be worthless to society.”
“If the society changes its concepts by placing the responsibility on its system, not on the individual, and guarantees secure employment or a minimum income, dignity will come within reach of all.”
“The white liberal must see that the Negro needs not only love but also justice. It is not enough to say, “We love Negroes, we have many Negro friends.” They must demand justice for Negroes.”
“The white liberal must honestly ask himself why he supported the movement in the first place. If he supported it for the right reasons, he will continue to support it in spite of the confusions of the present moment.”
“Today the judgment of God is upon the church for its failure to be true to its mission. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.”
“Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten. A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present.”
“…a need for a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society”.
“Among the moral imperatives of our time, we are challenged to work all over the world with unshakable determination to wipe out the last vestiges of racism.”
“A final problem that mankind must solve in order to survive in the world house that we have inherited is finding an alternative to war and human destruction…President John F. Kennedy said on one occasion, “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.””
MIANO-GONE-WILD 