Some years ago, when I was walking all the streets of San Francisco, I encountered this window full of small nods to the life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Click to enlarge.) Some are familiar: at far left, a small photo of the pastor and leader exhorting attendees at the 1963 March on Washington; in the center, a head shot of King labeled "Dream."
But others, all words from Dr. King harder to make out, are less familiar and more challenging:
- Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.
- Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?"
- The time is always right to do what is right.
- A riot is the language of the unheard.
Dr. King was not a comforting prophet. Few prophets are.
Dr. King, his words but even more the freedom movement of which he was the public face, was a presence in my late childhood and early adulthood. I realized this year how few of us still remember Dr. King as a living figure in the landscape of our lives rather than an icon of some vague, possibly better, historical America.
That time didn't seem so good as lived; after all, its leader was murdered as a consequence of his struggle for justice. As were a lot of other people killed working for a different America.
Looking back, King is enveloped in a warm haze. That's bullshit. To the powers that were, he was a dangerous rebellious terrorist.
Yesterday, in honor of the MLK holiday, my little parish sang the freedom lyric "We shall overcome ..." Do we believe that? It was probably even harder to believe in that in King's day than it is today.
As singers did in the heyday of that song, we adapted the lyrics to our own moment:
"We shall melt the ICE someday ... "
In honor of Dr. King, let's get to work.
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