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Martin Luther King

“Let Freedom Ring!” Dr. Martin Luther King

Posted on July 3, 2022 Leave a Comment

A Libra’s Bipolar Views Of The 4th of July Celebration.

On the one hand, we should all be walking around each day with our arms raised heavenward in a state of ecstasy and adulation for the privilege of being alive in these United States of America. Of the estimated 108 billion modern humans who have lived on Earth, probably a tiny percentage have enjoyed the freedom and privileges of the average US citizen.

Whether the “Story of Eden” was real, mythical, or allegorical may remain enigmatic, what is not questionable, is that what separates man from other animals is his extraordinary capacity of free will. Furthermore, if the Eden Story represents the battle of good vs evil, there is ample evidence that the battle is not over.

From man’s earliest beginnings, ruthless tribal chiefs, kings, tzars, emperors, and dictators have ascended to assume positions of absolute power over weaker members of their societies and ruled with iron fists. Using increasingly powerful means of destruction they have slaughtered billions of people. It has been said that man is never more creative than when designing weapons of destruction.

On the other hand:

Although we may be living in unprecedented peace and freedom, our history is not without its ugly blemishes. Having escaped the tyranny of the British Crown, the fledgling US committed the massive atrocities of enslaving other “children of God,” from Africa and waging overt genocide by attempting to annihilate the 500 Native American Tribes. Although nearly every US high school US history book includes the horrific stories of Adolph Hitler destroying 7 million Jewish people in WWII, the equally horrendous history of “The Trail of Tears,” Smallpox infested blankets for land” and the systemic destruction of buffalo herds is ignored or reduced to a half-page titled: “Cowboys and Indians.” 

Although there are countless wonderful stories of peace and love overcoming the evils of hatred, the battle of good vs evil was illuminated in Loren Eiseley’s “The Immense Journey“.

“We are now in a position to see the wonder and terror of the human predicament: man is totally dependent on society. Creature of dream, he has created an invisible world of ideas, beliefs, habits and customs which buttress him about and replace for him the precise instincts of the lower creatures. In this invisible universe he takes refuge, but just as instinct may fail an animal under some shift of environmental conditions, so man’s cultural beliefs may prove inadequate to meet a new situation, or, on an individual level, the confused mind may substitute, by some terrible alchemy, cruelty for love.”  

The twisted mind of the killer of Dr. MLK is evidence of this tragic reality. However, to a lesser degree, many non-whites, women, various ethnic groups, and members of the LGBQT community are still not treated as equal partners in the “American Dream.”  

If that dream is to be fulfilled it will have to be inclusive of all.

It is not likely that many Native Americans, homeless people, and displaced or forgotten minority members will have cause to celebrate the “4th Of July.

A beautiful epitaph of Dr. King’s, “I Have a Dream” speech might describe all children; “red and yellow; black and white,” laughing, talking and walking hand-in-hand, loving and celebrating their diversity and each other.    

“Let Freedom Ring”.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

Photo credits

www.abodeparkcity.com

www.belvederefamily.com

Posted in: Reflections | Tagged: 4th of July, Biodesign Out For Walk, Martin Luther King

Keeping The Spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Alive

Posted on January 19, 2015 Leave a Comment

Martin Luther KingExcerpt: Biodesign Out For A Walk, chap. 21, “The Land of Pygmies and Giants.”

“As a biology teacher, I welcomed the chance to acknowledge Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the courage, wisdom, and color that he added to our society. The word “color” was used purposefully in a biological, literal, figurative and respectful context. Is it not our highest calling to go beyond Dr. King’s, “I Have a Dream,” speech, and see children and adults, walking hand-in-hand, not color blind, but rejoicing in their race, color, creed, ethnic and religious diversity? It would be biologically, if not, politically correct. When I shared this with students, they agreed.”

“In creation there is not only a Yes but a No; not only height but also an abyss; not only clarity but also obscurity; not only progress and continuation but impediment and limitation…not only value but worthlessness…It is true that individual creatures and men experience these things in most unequal measure, their lots being assigned by a justice which is curious or very much concealed. Yet it is irrefutable that creation and creature are good even in the fact that all that is exists in this contrast and antithesis.” – Karl Barth

I know of no human who understood (or lived) this statement more profoundly than Dr. King. He could have retreated to the relative comfort of being a Baptist Minister in a middle-class neighborhood without confronting the potential evils of tribalism and racism. He understood that both black and white people were capable of racism,hatred and killing each other based on the color of their skin. He experienced first hand the poverty and deprivation of an unjust society that penalized children because of their skin color. He knew all of that and yet chose to follow the model of Jesus Christ by uniting not dividing, returning good for evil, tolerance for hatred, and providing comfort and solace for the sick, downtrodden and poor.

One of the results of declining spiritual awareness, individually or collectively, is the failure to identify evil. C.S. Lewis wrote about this and Plato suggested that evil exists in antithesis to goodness: “If you doubt the existence of evil, try to do something good and see what happens.”

On nearly every Biodesign trip, I was confronted with bouts with evil that were sometimes nearly overwhelming. The general feeling was intense anxiety and foreboding that what I was doing was wrong and we should go home immediately.  I had no peer or precedent support, other than John Muir, but he never led 30 high school students into the wilderness. Fortunately, they usually lasted only a few minutes and then they passed.

Although the events were scary, they were trivial compared to what Dr. King must have experienced. I cannot fathom the courage it took for him to appear in public, or lead a peaceful march, knowing that his head might be in the crosshairs of some sniper’s riflescope.

During the overwhelming pressures that would have caused lesser men to buckle, retreat or retaliate, he proclaimed, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” He chose the hard road of unconditional love and forgiveness. In doing so, he joined Abraham Lincoln, John and Robert Kennedy and all the saints and sinners who were willing to “march into Hell for a heavenly cause.” Dr. King’s life and work were the result of his deeply rooted Christian faith, which was challenged, ridiculed and besmirched.George Bernard Shaw supposedly quipped: “Christianity might be a good idea if anyone ever tried it.” George Bernard Shaw did not know Dr. Martin Luther King.

Lowell H. Young, Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

Posted in: Reflections | Tagged: Biodesign Out For A Walk, Christianity, faith, Lowell Harrison Young, Martin Luther King

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