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Returning to the Beloved Community
First of all, some of you may not know about Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman in Congress, a candidate for the Presidency in 1972, and one of the most inspiring politicians ever, but watch the first 2 minutes and 24 seconds of this video and you will understand a great deal:
Think of Shirley as a canary in a coal mine, one who hung in there and fought long and hard and straight and clean, and who, in the end succumbed to the insider politics that characterized the Democratic party at that time. Newly emerging as the party of the people, the antiwar and anti-racism party, those leaders wore the mantle uncomfortably., looking over their shoulders at all times in fear of being called too liberal. In the end, they could not support the smart, dark-skinned woman who told it like it was. They could support the mild-mannered white guy, equally clear but not as forceful, and so, in their timidity, the little bird of truth in the coal mine gasped, and fell to the ground.
Sound familiar?
Listen to Barack Obama's speech from a week ago: his Sunday sermon on the mount:
Now we do not endorse candidates here at the DCP and this piece is no endorsement for any candidate. But I want to highlight a small segment of the Obama speech; one we have discussed before, and that is his invocation of Dr. King's concept of the Beloved Community.
From an article entitled "Martin Luther King's Vision of a Beloved Community":
Integration, as King understood it, is much more inclusive and positive than desegregation. Desegregation is essentially negative in that it eliminates discrimination against blacks in public accommodations, education, housing and employment -- in those aspects of social life that can be corrected by laws. Integration, however, is "the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed participation of Negroes in the total range of human activities." But King did not believe that the transition from desegregation to integration would be inevitable or automatic. Whereas desegregation can be brought about by laws, integration requires a change in attitudes. It involves personal and social relationships that are created by love -- and these cannot be legislated. Once segregation has been abolished and desegregation accomplished, blacks and whites will have to learn to relate to each other across those nonrational, psychological barriers which have traditionally separated them in our society. All of us will have to become color blind. As King said, desegregation will only produce "a society where men are physically desegregated and spiritually segregated, where elbows are together and hearts apart. It gives us social togetherness and spiritual apartness. It leaves us with a stagnant equality of sameness rather than a constructive equality of oneness." But integration will bring in an entirely different kind of society whose character is best summed up in the phrase "Black and White Together" -- the title of one of the chapters of Why We Can’t Wait and the theme of one stanza of the civil rights movement’s hymn "We Shall Overcome." Integration will enlarge "the concept of brotherhood to a vision of total interrelatedness."Behind King’s conception of the Beloved Community lay his assumption that human existence is social in nature. "The solidarity of the human family" is a phrase he frequently used to express this idea. "We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality," he said in one of his addresses. This was a way of affirming that reality is made up of structures that form an interrelated whole; in other words, that human beings are dependent upon each other. Whatever a person is or possesses he owes to others who have preceded him. As King wrote: "Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally ‘in the red.’ " Recognition of one’s indebtedness to past generations should inhibit the sense of self-sufficiency and promote awareness that personal growth cannot take place apart from meaningful relationships with other persons, that the "I" cannot attain fulfillment without the "Thou."
As the political temperature heats up, as each person here selects their particular brand of hope for the future, let us also ponder what it means to be part of an "inescapable network of mutuality." We all came together in hope, after all. We came together and witnessed the death of hope and the shared understanding of the crimes that were committed against us that led to the death of hope. We lost. But we did not lose the lesson, did we?
Fighting for hope, marching for sanity, unpacking lies, and still each day, we awake and fight some more. As we adapt to the changes in our circumstances -- new life, deaths, losses, gains, new discoveries and the release of old beliefs -- we have those shared experiences to return to, in moments of fear and despair, as well as in moments of fragile joy.
On this Sunday morn, let's be grateful for this particular beloved community. In all it's strange and occasionally bizarre configurations, it is a beloved community in the sense that MKL Jr. meant: I and Thou dance together.
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Karen,
Thanks for posting those. I actually at first thought that she reminded me of Maxine Waters, particularly when I saw Congressman Waters speak so clearly about Condiliar and the Bush crimes.
At that point it wasn't whether Maxine Waters was a women. It was that she was a member of Congress who was speaking the truth and unwilling to be silenced like the rest of the careful Congressmen and women!
I had hopes that Nancy Pelosi would take a strong stand, and be more responsible than the men in the party. I have been very disappointed as I have watched her subside to the DC beltway pundants.
Yet, I too was one who didn't remember learning about Cong. Chisholm.
Regarding if your questions about hope or losing the lesson...I would say that my lessons have not been forgotten. I will never be able to accept the media's words again. I have learned to tell people the truth about the media and our government officials, even though they prefer to think that maybe my comments represent an extreme fringe element.
I myself know that it's not about politics. But it's about bringing real hope to the future and not just saying the words. I know it's about changing the lobbyist and media infrastructure that has brought us to the edge of corporate fascism.
So I dare to hope again. After having hoped in 2004, and lost it. And in losing hope that the Democratic Congress we helped deliver in 06 had failed as well. But I dare hope that this year, the choices we make will finally bring about a government for the people-by the people as our forefathers intended.
beautifully stated, sparrow. i totally agree.
Ted Kennedy will endorse Obama at a rally in DC tomorrow so I'm going to caucus for Obama, I think.
nmp, do you have details on that endorsement?
I am afraid to hope again.....or maybe too cynical
sigh
Barack Obama has faced a difficult life, without ever really knowing it until he decided to investigate his origins. Child of a single mother, he was surrounded by love and ...... HOPE ........
I don't remember the candidates from the US presidential election of 1972, but I admire the strength and tenacity of Shirley Chisholm. It was not her failure at that time. It was the failure of the masses. What mountains of courage that woman had in a very chauvinistic world.
As an aside, it's interesting to note that American heroine, Shirley Chisolm shares a surname with Australian heroine, Caroline Chisholm, a catholic pioneer who rescued homeless girls in colonial Sydney and died in 1877. Caroline's face was the first woman other than a monarch to feature on Australian currency: she graced the $5 note until 1992.
People, whether they be black, green or turquoise; whether they subscribe to Allah, God, Jehova or the god that resides within; whether they are fully able-bodied or wheelchair-bound; whether they can sing the national anthem and stay in tune or whether they are tone deaf, is immaterial when the message, the determination and the power of the people is motivated to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Perhaps the time has come. Perhaps Shirley Chisholm has paved the way for Barack Obama. With such hard, lessons from the past, as recently as 2004, it is up to all of us to HOPE - loudly - and clearly. "YES WE CAN!" has such a resonance that the sound will grow and the chanters will increase until it becomes a deafening roar that will be heard across the globe. Shirley Chisholm has earned our HOPE.
Thankyou Karen, I'd never heard of Shirley Chisholm. What a woman!
Karen
I don't have details. I hope with the "heads up" you will find out. I read in the Hartford Courant "in the hours before the President's State of the Union Address" which I dread every year and had forgotten about.
Nothing on his website.
Obama supposed to be speaking at the DNC Winter Meeting for Students.
DNC Winter Meeting appears not to start til Feb. 1
http://blog.4president.org/2008/2007/01/dnc_winter_meet.html
New York Times says it's at American University but again says "hours before" Bush's speech.
I get emails from Kennedy but not press releases, only Kerry.
Hope u 4 there!