Do You Want a Peace of Me?
Soul |
These are just words and words are okay
It’s what you do and not what you say
“Peaceful World,” ~John Mellencamp
One speaker, though, didn’t sugar coat a possible reality of MLK’s legacy… he threw down the gauntlet. He said, “If we do not act upon the legacy and principles of justice and peace Martin Luther King, Jr. died for, then he has been reduced to nothing more than series of sound bites.” Whoa!
MLK, just a series of sound bites. Long, silent pause. Uncomfortable shifting in the seats. Silence broken by the beautiful, rhythmic cadence of call and response… “Say it now! Preach it! That’s right!”
I got to thinking about that… MLK, just a series of sound bites. Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere have certainly been awash with Dr. King sound bites recently, that’s a fact, including yours truly.
If we do not act… “Acting” for justice and peace, what would that look like? In some small way, posting on Facebook is an action, I suppose. My guess is Martin Luther King, Jr. would have found social media as a powerful tool to carry his message of equality, justice and peace for all. However, at some point though, we have to act. Again, what would that look like?
Far too often, historically, peace has been imposed through domination and force, which begs the question that Tom Shadyac asks in his new must see documentary, I AM, “Is this just who we are… are we basically just greedy, aggressive and violent creatures wreaking havoc on the planet and each other?”
If this is true, was Dr. King’s principle of non-violent, peaceful resistance doomed to fail from the start? What if, as I AM goes on to ask: “What is humankind’s basic nature… Is the essential nature of humans to cooperate or to dominate?”
This is an age-old debate about who we are at our core—very John Lock and Thomas Hobbes-like. To Locke, humankind was inherently pleasant, good and peaceful. To Hobbes, humankind was nasty, solitary and violent.
Though not always pleasant, I choose to believe, deep down, we were created for peace. Aggression, violence and dominance that produce racism, sexism and classism are products of our brokenness; they are products of our human-created separation from God. We got ourselves into this mess, we can get ourselves out of this mess.
Think globally, but act locally… very locally, personally. There is a prayer I stumbled upon Christmas Eve that I hear as a call to action for justice and peace. It is “acting” that aligns with Dr. King’s idea of action.
“Prayer for Peace”
If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
Perhaps this too is just another sound bite? I don’t think so, though. The requisite, critical action for peace is there in that last sentence. There can be no peace until we end the war within. In the spirit of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., upon this principle, we must act.