Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day - Today I am reminded again to honor the ongoing struggle for freedom, equality, and dignity for all people, and share in the efforts.
Agenda for today:
1. Intentions
2. Study
3. March
4. Index to MLK Day projects
1. Intentions:
What have I done lately to teach or support freedom, equality, and dignity for all people?
How can I better define myself as part of the human (rather than white) race?
How can I better define myself as part of the human (rather than white) race?
What are my essential intentions for equality and service?
Today I reaffirm these core values and testimonies that capture the possibility of daily right action and are useful in any situation that arises in daily life:
-I intend to testify for equality, treat every person with respect and love, and work to correct my shortfalls, because the spirit connection and common humanity of all people transcends our differences.
-I intend to serve my community and the world tirelessly, in all the ways I am led by Spirit, because I have the ability to make my community a better place for my family and my neighbors and at the same time grow in skills and compassion.
2. Study:
Each year I read more of the writing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This year I read his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail", directed to a group of eight white southern clergymen (the full text is here). Two sections that I like:
“You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. ...The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation."
Each year I read more of the writing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This year I read his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail", directed to a group of eight white southern clergymen (the full text is here). Two sections that I like:
“I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” |
| Banner from 2019 |
Most year I attend the annual NAACP Martin Luther King Jr. march and the following celebration. The speeches are rousing and the music is great.
This year it was iced out, but will be rescheduled in February.
5. Index to MLK Day Projects:
I didn't have time for a project this year. Here are some projects from past years, with links:
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