Martin Luther King

Look, this isn’t funny. Three great leaders were assassinated within 5 years of one another. What this says to me is that the idea of change scares people, and people will act out of fear and bigotry to subdue the brighter light. According to the campaign news, our country, is hungry for change. Obama has built most of his campaign on the mantra of CHANGE. Perhaps now is the time we do question what our convictions are, and how love will help us cultivate these convictions. It is not enough to just look toward a leader to do it. As we’ve seen from the assassination of three great leaders in our history-one person can not spearhead change for us. We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
On this 40 anniversary marking MLK’s assassination, I am listening to Marianne Williamson. The following is a passage from a speech she gave at the Omega Institute, where I lived and worked for 3 years.

“How come hatred has the human race hostage?
Every time you hear of a terrorist act…you always hear the President refer to it as an act of cowardice that won’t be tolerated.
Cowardice?
I will go with wicked, unconsciousable, I’ll go with so many words, but I’m not sure I’ll go with cowardly. The truth of the matter is that hatred has a perverse kind of courage…
Miracles arise from conviction. Manifest power comes from conviction.
Hatred is acting with more conviction on the planet today.
I can’t imagine a kinda, sorta, when it’s convenient terrorist…Terrorists are very clear about what they want, willing to do any training it takes to effectuate their cause and very willing to die if that is what it takes.
The problem on the planet today is that those who are committed to that which it is not love behave with more conviction than do those of us who are centered in conviction of love. It is most dangerous if you feel it and you don’t act on it…..”

How did this happen?

There was a chain of action broken in the 60’s. I believe that the American conscious was frightened, suppressed as it witnessed the execution of it’s great leaders who were acting in conviction, acting in the interest of building a better nation. Can you image the fear you might have as yours leaders, promoting Peace and Justice, are all murdered within a 5 year period?
John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.
MLK and RFK were murdered within just two months of one another.
“We’ve had difficult times in the past. We will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.”
Ironically, RFK says the above on April 3, 1968, the day before MLK was murdered.

Ironically MLK speaks those words in the above video, the very night before he was murdered. It gives me chills. He is saying, “Like anyone, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But, I’m not concerned about that now.”

MLK was a man with love and conviction. He rallied thousands to proactively cultivate justice. Look at the seeds of this change that have flourished and then look at the garden and ask, How can I help tend it? What seeds do we need now. And how we water them with conviction?

It is not enough to quote these leaders, it is time to act in the same conviction, so that we don’t have just one leader who can be assassinated. But rather that we are a nation of individuals strong, all willing to eradicate hatred, bigotry,racism, and injustice.

*photo taken in 2007 at the King Center in Atlanta, GA