Now, we got to get
this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is
reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic.
Power at its best, power at its best is love, implementing the demands of
justice, and justice at its best is love, correcting everything that stands
against love. And this is what we must see as we move on. –Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.
Nothing is new under the sun. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
understood that overcoming systematic oppression required power, as it still
does. This power, however, is different from the kind many of us are familiar
with. MLK was not talking about the power to kill a slave master, or the power
to violently protest, destroying the small business of an immigrant hoping to
provide for his family, here and back home. NO. MLK knew of a different kind of
power. Such a power isn’t simply accompanied by love but is enveloped in it.
Such power is demonstrated in a people who can come together and embrace
discomfort for a united cause. Such a power led people to wake up extra early
for 381 days to walk or join a carpool to work, refusing to sit on a bus where
they were not regarded as equal citizens. Such a power fueled the efforts of
the Montgomery bus boycott. Such a power drove people to boycott A&P
Supermarket in Cleveland with such unanimity, that after one day, 18 stores
shut down and Mr. A&P contacted MLK and his crew to ask, “what would you
advise us to do”. Such a power prompted people to march despite knowledge of oncoming
fire hoses because they knew that within them burned a fire that no fire hose
could put out. Such a power inspired people not to be as the Levite and the priest,
asking, “if I help that man, what will happen to me”, but as the Good
Samaritan, asking, “if I do not help that man, what will happen to him?”
That
is the mentality we must have in this matter. Some of us find it difficult to
experience empathy in regards to the injustices taking place, not only in
Ferguson, not only in great ol’ America, but all over this world. I, too, am
guilty of this, and I am a work in progress. But like the Good Samaritan, I
recognize the need to strive to see myself in the wretched of the earth. Mike
Brown is not only my brother, he’s me. The Nigerian girls who were abducted and
are no longer headline worthy aren't just my sisters, they’re me. The people
dying from Ebola aren't just my relatives, they’re me. That little girl who
just entered Eastern Europe as a sex slave isn't just my sister, she’s me.
Those young men who are murdered in inner cities as a result of gang and drug
related violence are not just my brothers, they’re me. That woman who was
brutally beaten by the man she thought loved her isn't just my mother, she’s
me. Those children who are hungry and dying aren't just my siblings, they’re
me. If my heart feels no tug for people in such conditions and I feel no
prompting into action on their behalf, perhaps it’s time I reevaluate the love
I have for myself.
But let’s take it a
little further… What if those responsible for abducting the Nigerian girls
are also me? What if those who are exploiting helpless individuals through
human trafficking are also me? What if those gang bangers and drug dealers are
also me? What if that man who beat his wife is also me? What if Darren Wilson
is also me? What if I have the same potential to be the perpetrated as I do to
be the perpetrator?
Power & Love,
David
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