“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving our peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
-Martin Luther King
By Doug Draper
On this Martin Luther King Day – Jan. 18, 2010 – the American civil rights leader would have been three days past his 81st birthday and would no doubt be at the forefront, along with U.S. President Barrack Obama and others, of encouraging the world to come to the aid of the earthquake victims in Haiti.
As our American neighbours take time, once again, to observe Martin Luther King Day, one cannot help but ask why we don’t have more voices like Martin Luther King or the person who inspired him – the great leader for non-violent activist, Mahatma Gandhi of India – in this world today?
Why is it that so many people who believe that they or their people have a grievance or are being oppressed in some way feel the only way they can make their case is by stitching explosive into their underwear and trying to blow up an airplane, shooting randomly into a crowd or letting a bomb they are hiding under their shirt go off on a bus or in a marketplace full of women and children? Why is it that the voices of King and Gandhi have been replaced by crude tapes of the mad ravings of Osama bin Laden or some psycho impersonating him from some cave somewhere? Continue reading
