For the second time in as many months I break from my usual blog topics. Today, I cannot write anything else but a plea for us to take the time and consider who we are, and who we want to be as a nation. Do we wish to be a nation divided into factions? Do we want peace in the streets? Do we want to allow the passion of anger dictate how we see each other? Do we wish to be defined by our skin color, sexual orientation, gender, or religious perspective? Do we want to truly be one nation created from many different people? Today, I hope we will take a moment and contemplate how each of us wishes to create the future of our nation. Today, I hope we turn our thoughts to kindness, peacefulness, and generosity of heart. Today, let us think on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. :
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral;
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Love is not just a feeling or a hope of things to come. Love is an action verb. For real change we must make a loving action. We might start by small actions by seeing those around us with an open heart. Maybe we can offer someone to go ahead of us in line. Maybe we can make a shift in how we live our lives. Maybe if we can see anonymous people in a kinder light we then can begin to see our enemies as our brothers and sisters – not as people to destroy. How can we hope to change if we do not start to change, even a little bit, towards a nation of people living together in peace and freedom?
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral;
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Love is not just a feeling or a hope of things to come. Love is an action verb. For real change we must make a loving action. We might start by small actions by seeing those around us with an open heart. Maybe we can offer someone to go ahead of us in line. Maybe we can make a shift in how we live our lives. Maybe if we can see anonymous people in a kinder light we then can begin to see our enemies as our brothers and sisters – not as people to destroy. How can we hope to change if we do not start to change, even a little bit, towards a nation of people living together in peace and freedom?
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