A Day to Remember Core Values
Today is the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States. Many presume to forecast what they believe Donald Trump’s presidency will mean for the country. One thing most agree on is that given his level of unpredictability, Trump is sure to surprise us.
Today we celebrate and honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This holiday gives us time to reflect on and consider what made Dr. King a symbol for justice and democratic values, as well as a figure of reliable, enduring predictability.
I’m re-sharing a portion of the post from last year’s holiday to keep a light shining brightly on Dr. King’s message.
Theologian Paul Tillich called core values “matters of ultimate concern.” Many of the conflicts tearing apart the fabric of American society today could be better handled if leaders of warring factions understood and honored the matters of ultimate concern critical to the people they serve.
The following quotes, shared in honor of Dr. King’s legacy and living memory, point to his core values, transcendent spiritual insights from the Black American religious heritage from which he derived and higher octaves of possibility for the nation whose promise he died for:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys. The aftermath of the ‘fight with fire’ method … is bitterness and chaos, the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that. Yes, love—which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies—is the solution to the race problem.
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, 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. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
“Our goal is to create a beloved community—this will require a qualitative change in our souls, as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”
May Dr. King’s words rest in the minds and hearts of citizens and leaders around the country.
