"Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. To our most bitter opponents we say: 'We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Send us your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead and we shall still love you. But rest ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.' " [Martin Luther King, Jr.]
In the United States, February is Black History Month. This is a month-long celebration of black Americans who made an indelible contribution to this country. In the month of February, we commemorate the strength of African Americans, who for over 200 years in America, never had a recorded history. This piece is the last of three of the 2012 Black History Month celebration.
[Related posts: "Love is . . . Courage", January 8, 2012; " Love is . . . . Truth", January 8, 2012 "; "Remembering Martin Luther King", January 16, 2012; and Martin Luther King, January 17, 2011].
I remember Martin Luther King, Jr. when I was growing up, but I have dim memories of his place in history. I was a young girl when he was gunned down in Memphis, TN in 1968. Some grown-ups saw him as a galvanizing force, a man of color who dared to speak the truth. Others, in my white world, saw him as a danger to society and to the established order of things. This dichotomy troubled me. Would blacks and whites so deeply disagree that we would see riots and even civil war in the streets, as some adults hinted?
There is no doubt that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a visionary. His words are thrilling, and ring true even today. I know a woman who was a civil rights worker during King's day. She met him and heard him speak. She says that he had such charisma, she would have followed him anywhere.
What is Martin Luther King's legacy today? I have not begun to plumb the depths of his extensive writings. But his message is still modern and relevant in current times.
Martin Luther King said that "there are some things in our world to which men of goodwill must be maladjusted." [Love is . . . . Truth"]. In other words, Love is the discernment of injustice in our world. If we accept the status quo, we accept 'moral degeneracy, bigotry, the insanity of militarism and self defeat.'
Love is also being brave enough to take action. ["Love is . . . Courage"]. I think of the Tuskegee Airmen during WWII, who clearly saw that Hitler's assassination of millions of people was insane-- and who bravely decided to do something about it.
Love in the end, is Forgiveness. For what end would we fight for justice, only to annihilate the enemy in the process? Do we not all want only peace, in the end?
How far would you go to achieve peace, in your family, in your church, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your town, in your country, in your world?
I confess that I had to learn love and forgiveness the hard way. My upside down, backwards family was a closed system. The blinds were drawn at our windows at all times, we were an intensely private people, and no one came in to shed light onto the darkness.
At age 4, I almost drowned in a neighbor's pool. My mother pulled me out just in time. My family dealt with every crisis with silence. We never spoke of this event again. I could not fight that repression . I learned to swim
At age five, I was told that I was too old for a nap. The fatigue overwhelmed me, though. I could not fight the fatigue and I could not win the argument over naps. I put myself down for naps from then, on.
At age seven, I was diagnosed with asthma. I did not want this disease that left me gasping for breath and coughing all night. I was told to sit in bed and not get up. I could not fight this, my body was fighting me enough. I learned to love to read and knit and listen to music.
At age ten, there were daily arguments over making me eat the food put in front of me. The battles were becoming intolerable. I could not eat that gluey oatmeal, that cold mush that passed for cereal, the greasy hotdogs, the four day old roast beef for dinner. I ate what I could and left the rest. I learned to eat more lunch at school or more snacks at the neighbor's.
When a family member called me ugly on a daily basis, and sometimes hit me, I hid in my room, or if he invaded that space, I left the house. I learned to walk away.
At age 14, my parents stopped taking me to church. I learned that I could still believe in my heart, even if I could not profess my faith
When I went away to graduate school, I was the victim of a violent crime. I was beaten and left for dead. I almost died that day. My parents visited briefly, saw that I was alive, and left me in that far away city. I learned the kindess of strangers. I earned top grades and graduated with honors.
I agree with Martin Luther King when he said, "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we shall still love you."
I agree, because I have lived these principles. Even as a child, I determined to live right, rather than to give in to the offenses against me. I loved my parents, even though they were wrong, and I had to suffer for it. There was no way I could become them. But to survive, I had to make peace. In loving them, I had to love enough to forgive.
HOW could I have done this as a mere child? I believe that my childhood determination was a sign of God's grace. It is also a testament to the human spirit-- the spirit in us that desires, that craves, peace and forgiveness. That longing, in the end, is for LOVE. Love defines us. Love makes us human. Love saves us.
(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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