He went on to comment that the emphasis of the 20th century was undoubtedly technology, which led to a vast series of unequivocal technological fruits born of this endeavor.
However, with our eye toward the A-Bomb, Assault Rifles, Nuclear Warheads, Dish Washers, Toaster Ovens, Pharmaceuticals, BMW’s, Airplanes, Skateboards, Solar Panels, Biodiesel, Televisions, DVD Players, Cloning, Genetic Testing, Elipticals, the Internet, Tablets, and Cell Phones, we may have neglected the cultivation of the very necessary psychological and spiritual skills human beings need to share a planet together--all 6 Billion of us—while we figure out how to use (or not use) these pieces of technology wisely and mindfully.
The mass shooting at the nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida this weekend is another painful reminder of this reality.
Of all the skills required for co-habitation and co-existing, to my mind, the most important is the ability to act without harming self or other- to act non-violently.
There is an assumption that people (men, women and children) either:
a.) already know how to be non-violent, or
b.) are not capable of being non-violent.
I don’t believe either are true. I think human beings are capable of non-violent action with skills training.
Yet, even though I believe this--even though I know this to be true-- I can still fall into deep despair when I hear that more people have lost their lives due to hate, ignorance, hopelessness, and violence.
Whether it is a middle aged man who takes his own life because he is unable to provide for his family, or an unarmed young Black person caught in the wrong place at the wrong time looking down the barrel of a police officer’s gun, or a child going into their first grade classroom at 9 a.m. on a Tuesday never to walk out again, or a French woman getting on the subway to go to work and never arriving, or a teenage girl who cuts her own wrist to avoid emotional pain, or a woman tormented by her spouse in her own home, or an Army Sergeant doing drills at Fort So-and-So and being confronted by a disenfranchised colleague, or a disabled child being severely bullied by their peers on the playground, or a member of the LGBTQ community spending a Saturday night out with friends on Latin Night at their favorite club when a well-armed 29 year-old decides to use this club to carry-out god knows what…
Yes, I can despair. Yes, my heart breaks.
For this reason, I find it helpful, and sometimes necessary, to re-read words that are nourishing and hopeful that our human species will wake up and rise to what we are capable of in this one precious human life.
Today, these words are those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Read these words Slowly. Carefully. And With Heart.
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The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
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.
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Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
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Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it because it is right.
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Nonviolence is the answer
to the crucial political and moral questions of our time:
the need for man to overcome oppression and violence
without resorting to oppression and violence.
Man must evolve for all human conflict
a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation.
The foundation of such a method is love.
***Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech,
Stockholm, Sweden, December 11, 1964
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A nation that continues year after year
to spend more money on military defense
than on programs of social uplift
is approaching spiritual death.
***Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967
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Man was born into barbarism
when killing his fellow man
was a normal condition of existence.
He became endowed with a conscience.
And he has now reached the day
when violence toward another human being
must become as abhorrent as eating another's flesh.
***Why We Can't Wait, 1963
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Somehow this madness must cease.
We must stop now.
I speak as a child of God and brother
to the suffering poor of Vietnam.
I speak for those whose land is being laid waste,
whose homes are being destroyed,
whose culture is being subverted.
I speak for the poor in America
who are paying the double price
of smashed hopes at home
and death and corruption in Vietnam.
I speak as a citizen of the world,
for the world as it stands aghast
at the path we have taken.
I speak as an American
to the leaders of my own nation.
The great initiative in this war is ours.
The initiative to stop it must be ours.
***The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967
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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....
The chain reaction of evil --
hate begetting hate,
wars producing more wars --
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation.
***Strength To Love, 1963
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Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.
Longevity has its place.
But I'm not concerned about that now.
I just want to do God's will.
And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain.
And I've looked over.
And I've seen the promised land.
I may not get there with you.
But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people will get to the promised land.
***I've Been To The Mountaintop, April 3, 1968
Re-reading Dr. King's words remind me of Metta or Loving-Kindness Meditation.
I think this week I will commit to practice Metta Meditation everyday as a way to bring my own awareness to the ways in which I may act, speak and engage psychologically from a non-harming, non-violent perspective because I truly believe it is a skill we all are capable of and we all must practice. Again and again.
May it be so.
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