The agony of the poor enriches the rich. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Billionaires add 1 trillion to net worth during pandemic as their workers struggle. The Guardian
Yes, things could continue to deteriorate here in the US after the past four years, especially the last two weeks: white nationalists’ insurrection at the Capitol in DC and the second impeachment of the current president, Donald Trump. And they can continue to get better-after the incredible grassroots organizing, local leadership representing in Georgia, and resultant win of two Senate seats. We determine where we will go from here-more chaos or Beloved Community.
It’s the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, January 15, and the country pays tribute by remembering and reflecting on his leadership in the struggle for justice. His last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” reads like it was written for these times. In that book Dr. King reminds the country that in order to heal white America must “reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance.” Like I said, it could have been written on January 6 2021.
The sad injustice of our situation is the collective ignorance that remains in white America, feeding white supremacy. On this year’s-2021- reflection of Dr. King, we could decide that we will finally begin to live into what is needed for change toward racial equity, class justice, and the end to militarism (and its broad effect on policing against Black and brown people). Individually and collectively we do have a choice if we will continue with chaos and injustice or build the elements of Beloved Community.
Dr. King’s vision of Beloved Community stated in a speech in 1957:“the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.”
We have choice. We can continue the chaos by allowing: the rich to feed off the agony of the poor, the white supremacist system to feed off and entrench the inequity of Black, Indigenous and other people of color, the wealth of the country to feed the machines of war against the same nationally and internationally. Or we can organize for justice and build Beloved Community and do what we did in Georgia two weeks ago. We can do what Dr. King and the larger collective did during the Black Civil Rights movement to win the Montgomery bus boycott, desegregate schools, win the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. We can stand on their shoulders and the shoulders of the countless people who fought for the right for all people to vote, to be treated humanely and to live into their highest potential. We could love all the people.
We can live into justice by coming from a place of love for each other. This is not a love for the behaviors of hatred and violence against us. We can fight for justice with love for the humanity that still exists in all of us. Because it is the lack of inhumanity that drives the heart of someone to act out inhumanely by violating the rights of another: because their skin tone is darker than their own. Or because they love someone of the same gender, or because they are female embodied, or were born in another country. This ability to ‘other’ another person and justify violence against them comes from the chaos we carry inside ourselves. It needs to start inside our own hearts, to calm the chaos and heal the separation inside. This will allow us the spaciousness to know injustice and correct it, moving toward building Beloved Community.
What will you do in 2021 to honor Dr. King? Continue chaos or build Beloved Community? You decide!