Martin Luther King Quote Reflections 12/12/16

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love, 1963.

As I rode along the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial wall on Friday night (see my previous post), this quote caught my eye and then it drew me in. At first, I read it out loud to myself - and then I rode over to my riding companions and shared it with them. The words are so simple, yet the essence of the words are often elusive.

In my previous post, I expressed my belief that while we won’t always agree with others, we should strive to understand how they think and feel. Throughout the campaign and in the post-election environment, I see very little effort in this regard. In fact, behind the relative safety of a keyboard and computer, many people have freely expressed hatred of those expressing views opposite of their own. Some have been emboldened to express their hate openly, in person and in verbal and physical ways. It is easy to say one side is responsible for the hate. Hate for certain races and ethnicities. Hate for police officers. Hate for certain religions. And ironically - hate for a person’s choice to love. And with this election, hate for a person’s vote.

I want to be clear: Sadness is not hate. Anger is not hate. Fear is not hate. I have felt sadness, anger and fear in varying degrees since the election. However, intense hostility and aversion derived from these feelings is - simply put - hate. And when we express these feelings as hate we will never drive out the hate of others. In fact, the hate for one another will only intensify.

There is a clear political divide in our country. But simple calls for inclusion - to “come together” - will not be enough. We need to bring light into the darkness. We need to bring love to the hate. This burden lies with both sides of the divide. It lies at the grassroots level and with our leaders. Our leaders must inspire us at the grassroots to “come together”, but they can not demand it. We, however, should demand inspiration from our leaders and action from the grassroots.