Monday, January 18, 2010

Waging Peace: Thank You Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This video combining footage from the civil rights movement with Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech with music from Sarah McLachlan is amazing and beautiful.  Enjoy ... and be inspired! 

 

 

I think there's a common misperception that confuses peacemaking with cowardice.  Perhaps that's because the common notion of "keeping peace" can include avoiding confrontation.  But faking peace is different from making peace. 

Making peace, waging peace, is active not passive.  It requires vision to know the truth and courage to meet the iniquity head on.  Those who step outside social norms to confront oppression know that they risk not only public censure or jail, but even death and torture. 

There is nothing cowardly about waging peace.  Standing up and acting on the principle of truth force, or soul force is a weapon, wielded against the forces of oppression and injustice.  It is moral weapon which, like the sword of King Arthur, can only be wielded by the morally strong.  It is not for the faint of heart. 

Dr. King, thank you not just for your dream, but for your footsteps marching to lead the way in the walk of peace.  For by walking the way of peace, and through your sacrifice, you led my people -- Black and Brown and White -- to a place where no war could have taken them.  You have led them to within sight of a promised land, the land of reconciliation and brotherhood. 

I know there are those who feel that objective has not yet been accomplished.  But we are closer now more than ever.  With continued warfare in the way of truth force, it will happen.  That's my dream.  I have that promised land within my sights. 

 

Peace Be With And In You

Truth Force Be With And In You

想像和平

3 comments:

  1. Dear Xan,

    I am so often amazed at the great changes that have taken in China in the past 50 years, but often forget or take for granted the huge changes that took place back home. Yes, Martin Luther King was a Great man who set the stage for our country to make leaps forward. Thanks for your words and sharing the video...

    Take care!

    Keith in Taipei

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  2. I wanted to share these remarks written by a friend who would prefer to remain anonymous. However, the last sentence, so warms my heart. My friend is a school teacher in a rural school in one of the poorest and most segregated parts of South Carolina. He writes:

    "I watched the video. Thanks for sending it. I have a nice one I show at school. It takes part of the 'I have a dream...' speech and mixes it with snap shots of his life. Better for little ones, I think. They see his picture and hear his voice, which is enough at their age. [As the class watched the video] I thought it was funny: Here I was, a White [person who grew up in the segregated South], showing them a film of Martin Luther King, Jr. I realized as I looked at them that they were all Black. As a teacher, strange as it seems, one does not always see color, just one's kids."

    I have to comment myself, that last sentence is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Isn’t that the dream? That we all, White or Black or In-Between, see each other for who we are and not as defined by the color of our skin or the circumstances of our birth? Hallelujiah!

    Thank you, my friend, very much for this comment!

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  3. great great article, congratulations my friend...I add a "thanks" for a person so large as to be a real reference point for all. Dr. King, thank you!

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