On Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day. News articles, columns, opinion letters and blogs were published about the legacy of Martin Luther King. Institutions and individuals organized discussions, panels, concerts and other events to celebrate his achievements. We appreciated what he did for our society. We talked about what he did during his life, but what about the things we do for peacemaking in our lives? We don’t seem to have learned Martin Luther King’s lessons yet.
Numerous times Martin Luther King spoke about the importance and power of education. If we don’t know an issue exists, how can we solve it? How can we help establish peace if we don’t know what caused the war? Many people know that there are conflicts in Darfur, Cabinda, Palestine and Israel, Chechen… Some might know that there are civil wars in small, almost forgotten, countries. But how many of us know what exactly caused these rebellions, civil wars, international conflicts and other acts of violence? How many of us care to learn?
Another important lesson Martin Luther King tried to teach us was to use nonviolent actions to achieve peace. Did we learn his lesson? NO! We try to establish peace with violence. We try to stop violence with more violence. Does it work? Obviously it doesn’t, since there are many active wars and conflicts today.
Martin Luther King tried to teach us to be tolerant toward each other. He stated that race, nationality, skin color, socioeconomic status and education level should not matter in our interactions with others. Did we learn this lesson? NO! We still tend to base our opinions about others on stereotypes and uneducated judgments. How many of us avoid interactions with people who differ from us? How many of us don’t respect people who differ from us?
Tough questions that we might not want to answer. Questions that might make us uncomfortable. But we should be honest with ourselves. Hopefully next year, when we celebrate Martin Luther King’s legacy, we will also celebrate our achievements: being educated and tolerant idividuals who are devoted to nonviolence and peacemaking.
