Reflections on Yesterday's Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Quotes

When it comes to Dr King, many people look at his impact on race relations, equality, and freedom, because he had such an impact at a time when racial issues had peaked in the forefront of society at the time. But I think this focus, though very important both in history and today, is a little bit narrow. His words and teachings have a much broader application, and I believe should have an impact across all humanity, in many of the issues and struggles that many of us are experiencing, have experienced, or may someday experience.

The 20 quotes that I selected yesterday, I selected using two guidelines: first, I tried to stay away from the most mainstream quotes; and second, I tried to stay away from quotes directly dealing with race. It was using those two guidelines that made me realize there is so much more to learn from his life and messages.

For one, I am a huge believer in his focus on non-violence. Many of his views on non-violence were part of his specific fights on racial equality, but he also meant this to hold a bigger purpose. 

“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is 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.”

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” 

Violence is such a large part of our society, and such a large part of our history, that I don't think we really think about the impact of violence. We love it in our sports, our music, our movies and TV. We "declare war" on topics (drugs, crime, disease). How many times have we seen or heard of confrontations which have escalated, largely because violence was either not avoided, not controlled, or even welcomed? How many times have we seen debates that have devolved into useless and pointless name calling and other verbal attacks? Or worse, when a debate turns into violent action, and then violent reactions? This occurs on all scales and in all levels, whether it's a verbal argument between two people, all the way up to wars between nations. Not only does it seem rare for one side or the other to simply not react, to walk away, or to attempt to diffuse, but many people view look down upon this stance; call it weak, or demean it. I strongly believe that escalating an issue rarely, if ever, ends well, compared to one side deploying a non-violent stance.

I had a long debate with someone years ago about kids bullying; specifically, what to do when a kid is being verbally bullied. So many people want to answer with "stand up for yourself", but I believe that is an over-simplified answer. What does it mean, to stand up for yourself? To engage in an argument? To "return fire" verbally? My advice, which I have given to my almost 11-year old son, is to walk away and avoid the confrontation. There is nothing to be gained by engaging in a confrontation with someone who is intent on pointless bullying. But what happens if the bullying turns physical, not just verbal? My advice to my son again is to walk away, avoid the confrontation, as best as possible. There is one exception to this, though, which Dr. King covers:

"The principle of self defense, even involving weapons and bloodshed, has never been condemned, even by Gandhi."

But even here; when does a confrontation become a situation where you need to defend yourself? Where does that line get drawn? Bullying is just one of many examples of confrontations and topic and issues where this question, this line, applies. We've seen untimely deaths in this country in the name of self-defense, sometimes legitimately and other times not-so-much. There are many cases, in my opinion, where confrontations that could have been avoided were not, which then lead to a self-defense situation that may not have ever occurred. 

“People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”

Isn't this where most of our confrontations come from, if you really think about it? We all have differences of opinions, but we fail to communicate what those differences are, and why? And communicating is not just talking, or explaining, but listening, and hearing, and taking the time to understand. Too many times, and seemingly more and more so, our confrontational conversations, no matter what topic, have been us "defending" our opinions no matter what the other person has to say or where they are coming from. That seems to occur on both sides of a discussion any more. Gone are the days, seemingly, where we could have debates and dialog where both sides walked away with a new understanding a learning, and in the best of scenarios, a compromise forming a new idea or opinion that meets more in the middle of a topic. Instead, we pull further apart and isolate ourselves, entrenching ourselves into polar opposite battlefields, lobbing grenades of insults and hyperbolic statements which do nothing but drive us further apart (violent war-like language intentionally used).

The key, again in my opinion, is in the third quote above, particularly "...not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit." To me, this is all about two things:  first, self-control. Controlling one's self; our actions, our reactions, our thoughts, our choices; which all start from our thought processes, our morals, and our viewpoints. We need to change, and to be constantly evolving:

“The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”

I wish we could all change, and evolve; to be more accepting; to work together instead of being separated; to value lives and morals, and not money or status or ego; to lift each other up and not put each other down (economically, spiritually, emotionally, literally, figuratively, etc); to stand up and not put down; to unite and not divide, to move forward and not fall backwards.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”  

"All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem."

"Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality."