There Is Something Wrong With Our World (Remembering Dr. King Today)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 97 on January 15 this year. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day... and yes, that's the official name of the federal observation of the third Monday of January is despite what the current administration wants to tell you... there is a weird erasure of what this brave man accomplished for civil rights in this country. It feels low-key and intentionally so this year. Events celebrating Dr. King are being cancelled nationwide, and the current administration has been hellbent on erasing his name and accomplishments in achieving civility, peace, equity, and brotherhood in this country and throughout the world.

Dr. King actually won his Nobel Peace Prize. It wasn't given to him like a Best Dad mug a couple of weeks after Father's Day. 

The media tends to downplay the holiday as a whole for the most part, often shortening it to MLK Day, which I'm sure our current administration will misread and use to chug raw unpasteurized whole milk to celebrate it. When the media does acknowledge the holiday, they will often play pieces of the closing lines of the speech Dr. King gave at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. A lot of them will put some of his words out of context, particularly the metaphor of seeing a world where his "four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." 

That is a metaphorical statement many see as "proof" that Dr. King was socially colorblind and that Black folks should just stop thinking about race, which is the OPPOSITE of what he was staying. Dr. King said he wanted to SEE that world, not that we were actually in it. Thus, it's a dream, not a reality, and it's a reality think we live in. They think that racism is over, and that belief has gutted every major part of the Civil Rights Act in recent years thanks in part to a Supreme Court largely filled by this administration to break the spirits of Black folks.

It's tiring, kids. 

Just... just tiring.

And for some reason, I doubt you'll hear this part of his speech in the media today:

"The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.  But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. 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."

As I said, I doubt you'll be hearing that part of the speech in the media today. Too close to what's happening today.

But it does go to show you why the administration is so hellbent on trying to erase Dr. King's memory from society. At least the reason outside of the surface, so to speak.

Take the time to read Dr. King's full March on Washington fo Jobs and Freedom speech here at the BBC because for some reason, it's no longer on government sites here in the United States. 

But one of Dr. King's sermons, one you rarely hear talked about in the media nor really acknowledged is his Rediscovering Lost Values sermon he gave in Detroit in February 1954.  Do take the time to read the whole sermon as well as other sermons and speeches Dr. King wrote and 

There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. 

I don't think we have to look too far to see that. 

I'm sure that most of you would agree with me in making that assertion. And when we stop to analyze the cause of our world's ills, many things come to mind. We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don't know enough. But it can't be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history. 

We have the facts at our disposal. We know more about mathematics, about science, about social science, and philosophy than we've ever known in any period of the world's history. 

So, it can't be because we don't know enough. And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind. That is, if we have not made enough progress scientifically. 

Well then, it can't be that. 

For our scientific progress over the past years has been amazing. Man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains, so that today it's possible to eat breakfast in New York City and supper in London, England. 

Back in about 1753 it took a letter three days to go from New York City to Washington, and today you can go from here to China in less time than that. 

It can't be because man is stagnant in his scientific progress. Man's scientific genius has been amazing. I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man's problems and the real cause of the world's ills today. 

If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men.

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The trouble isn't so much that we don't know enough, but it's as if we aren't good enough. The trouble isn't so much that our scientific genius lags behind, but our moral genius lags behind. 

The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. 

The problem is with man himself and man's soul. We haven't learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. 

And that is the basis of our problem. 

The real problem is that through our scientific genius we've made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we've failed to make of it a brotherhood. 

And the great danger facing us today is not so much the atomic bomb that was created by physical science. Not so much that atomic bomb that you can put in an aeroplane and drop on the heads of hundreds and thousands of people... as dangerous as that is. But the real danger confronting civilization today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness...  that's the atomic bomb that we've got to fear today. 

Problem is with the men. Within the heart and the souls of men. That is the real basis of our problem.

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We have adopted in the modern world a sort of a relativistic ethic ... Most people can't stand up for their convictions, because the majority of people might not be doing it. See, everybody's not doing it, so it must be wrong. And since everybody is doing it, it must be right. 

So, a sort of numerical interpretation of what's right. But I'm here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. 

It's wrong to hate. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong. 

It's wrong in America, it's wrong in Germany, it's wrong in Russia, it's wrong in China. It was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it's wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong. It's wrong to throw our lives away in riotous living. No matter if everybody in Detroit is doing it, it's wrong. 

It always will be wrong, and it always has been wrong. It's wrong in every age and it's wrong in every nation. Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. 

Some things in this universe are absolute. The God of the universe has made it so. And so long as we adopt this relative attitude toward right and wrong, we're revolting against the very laws of God himself.

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There is something in this universe that justifies the biblical writer in saying, "You shall reap what you sow." This is a law-abiding universe. This is a moral universe. It hinges on moral foundations. If we are to make of this a better world, we've got to go back and rediscover that precious value that we've left behind."

I think a sermon like this (and many other speeches and letters like this) is why I would rather celebrate the man who was trying to make this world a better place for his people and his race rather than "celebrating the dream" of what could have been, especially when those in power are doing everything to create a world opposite of what Dr. King envisioned. He believed in something positive and got killed trying to build up the world around him, not tear it down like some of the bigoted demagogues out there, especially one whose last words were denigrating another race. 

I honor Dr. King on this day and all days. You should too.