Monday, January 19, 2015

Where Do We Go From Here?

It's the day that we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
And in the face of Boko Haram, ISIS and the Paris killings, and the reactionary attacks on Moslems in so many places, I long for a resurgence of Dr. King's spirit.

King, Gandhi, Mandela.... These are the leaders we need today. Those who show us that an eye for an eye, hate for hate, violence for violence, dehumanization for dehumanization is not the sustainable formula for peace or justice, nor for freeing a people from oppression.

The answer also doesn't lie in fear. Particularly not in the kind of fear that, in the name of defending a free and democratic society, keeps those we fear detained, tortured and stripped of all those rights fundamental to that same democratic society. That's the ugly hypocrisy of Guantanamo. Our fear of hate, revulsion for the haters, leads us to actions that only generate more.

The problem with commemorations such as today's are that they make it so easy for us to pay lip service to principles we will not stand for.

Not just pointing a finger. Also experiencing the shame. Of what we allow to be done in our name.

 

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