So Much To Be Done

Earlier this week we honored Martin Luther King. Though not a perfect man, he was a great man. Not only did he teach us so much, he acted on his convictions. How much more would he have done if his life had not been cut short by an assassin's bullet!

The same could be said about the other two assassinations that marked the twentieth century in this country. I stood on the curb of Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC, watching the cortège carrying the body of JFK as it sped toward the Naval Hospital. How could this event be happening? What would our country be like today if JFK had not died?  Then months later after MLK's death, JFK's brother Bobby suffered the same fate.

These three deaths had a common denominator - fear and hatred. Before their time and after their deaths ,countless other men and women have died for the same root cause. What is it that causes some people to fear and hate others who are different from them?

In the current climate in our country (and elsewhere), the double fears of race and religion run rampant. Anti-semetic hatred has emerged from the ashes of Holocaust death camps. Added to such hatred, is anti-Muslim hatred. And the color of one's skin matters greatly for some people.

I grew up in a white northern European, Midwestern small town. Not even Italian or Greek immigrants lived there. There were the Catholics - and an assortment of Protestants from Lutheran to Pentecostal. But no one burned homes or taunted others. The Ku Klux Klan was some vague bunch of hooded white guys in the South. Then I moved to Washington DC. An awakening for me in this diverse international city.

Where does fear and hatred live in the hearts and minds of some people? One can generate theories from history. But racial and religious hatred is not a twentieth century phenomena. Go back to the earliest records of humanity. Does that give us an excuse to shrug our shoulders and say it is just part of being human?

On August 29, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered a powerful address at the March on Washington. It was not the speech he intended to give. But Mahalia Jackson urged him to tell people about his dream. I have a dream he began. His words still echo. A dream when humanity moves beyond fear and hatred.

There is still much work to be done.