Yesterday I wrote a blog piece talking about the general dismal state of political discourse. A day doesn't go by without at least one public mention of an "us versus them" statement that breaks relationships rather than builds relationships. I've been squirreled away at home most of this weekend reading various original narratives about nonviolence. This quote is yet another to serve as a good reminder of the importance of building relationships and unifying people. So much of our discourse (any side of the political spectrum, and topic) is locked in an us versus them mentality. Let this serve as a call to action
The next time you find yourself in a polarized discussion and locked in a battle to determine who's right, think of this quote. How might you chart another way and build relationships rather than destroy them. When you hear our political leaders speaking relationship destroying words, think for a moment on how they might do it another way.
And so I plead with you this afternoon as we go ahead: remain committed to nonviolence. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
--Our God is Marching on!
--March 25, 1965
Montgomery Alabama
The next time you find yourself in a polarized discussion and locked in a battle to determine who's right, think of this quote. How might you chart another way and build relationships rather than destroy them. When you hear our political leaders speaking relationship destroying words, think for a moment on how they might do it another way.
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