Martin Luther King Day

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” Martin Luther King

The racial divide that cuts its way through society polarizes people of different races irrationally against each other. I am a white man and therefore I only know what it is like to be white in this world but that does not exclude me from experientially understanding the difference between right and wrong. The only thing I can truly do is to explain how I feel and wonder out loud if others feel the same. I believe that we concentrate far too long on our problems and spend very little time on viable solutions. We like to find people to blame so that we can feel justified in our own hate. We focus on our differences instead of that which makes us the same. The common ground of our individual and collective existence rests squarely in the fundamental essence of our shared humanity. It is this universal thread of humanity that provides irrefutable evidence of human equality.

I have a very hard time garnering any solace or satisfaction from religion and the concept of God. God is perfect, all knowing and without blemish. I guess one can cull a sense of humility from the worship of a perfect God, but can you be inspired by the unattainable? Can you stay focused on being a better person when, no matter how hard you try, you fall woefully short of perfection? I tend to look to people, great people, people who inspire me. One of those people is Dr. Martin Luther King.

Martin Luther King is one of my heroes. Even as a child, his eloquent words inspired me. He seemed to be speaking to me, asking me to be better and telling me I could be better. As I grew older, I began to take more interest. I read his speeches and watched documentaries about his life and his work. Over the years I have had the opportunity and the privilege of visiting the historically iconic locations of his life and legacy. I have been to the home of his youth, the church where he preached, the site of his “I Have a Dream” speech, The Martin Luther King Monument, The Martin Luther King Museum, and his gravesite. My exposure to all of these things has led me to the understanding that he was an extraordinary man but also that he had flaws. It is this combination of greatness and moments of human weakness that inspired me to believe that, in some small way, I could be like him. It created in me a belief that I could self-determine. That in certain circumstances, even though I had flaws, I could behave exactly like my hero. That although these moments would never be as profound or as sustainable, there would be times when I could be just as strong and just as righteous as Martin Luther King.

I am a white man. I have done and said things that I regret to people of all colors and creeds. But my value is not limited to the sum of my mistakes and transgressions. Martin Luther King would forgive my occasional weakness or flaw as I have forgiven his. He would not judge me by the color of my skin but by the quality of my character. Martin Luther King would value my life as he valued all human life. How do I know this? Because, like all of us, he included me in his “Dream”.