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Taming the Savageness of Man
Today, forty years ago. I can't even remember when I heard; I think my boyfriend called me up. He was disgusted, I was in shock, we all were horrified. Two months later, it would happen again. That time, I know I called him. There were no words.
This morning, as we got into the car to drive to New York City, we turned on the radio. And we heard the words of Bobby Kennedy, candidate for President, tell a crowd of African-American voters in Indianapolis that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been shot and killed, earlier that evening, in Memphis, Tennessee.
LISTEN... We MUST listen.
He did not read the speech, he never looked down from the faces in the crowd. You can hear their shock and their screams of pain on the audio clip, but he never looked away from that pain. Instead, he stayed with them and reminded them:
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
He reminded himself, and all of us:
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence their evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization -- black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
There are no words to describe the sense of loss I feel today, as I listen to those words. Did we even know what we had back then, to inspire us to be better? We have, as a country, turned so radically away from what those two strong brave, CLEAR men reminded us about, over and over.
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
Today, forty years later, I say a prayer for our country and our people, because we have failed to heed those words. The savageness of man has reached a level of civilized and institutionalized meanness of spirit that is unmatched historically, not in its violence and bloodshed, but in a smiling face which hides such indifference.
In honor of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, let us, for today, look into the faces of everyone we meet, and make gentle the life of this world.
Amen.
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I want to add this fact:
In cities all over the United States, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black communities exploded, in fiery and self-destructive acts of rage against the racism and violence of this country. Just a few blocks from our house is H St., once a thriving Afro-centric small business district. Today it is filled with burned-out buildings, nail salons, unemployment offices, and bars. (In truth: some of those bars are GREAT bars...). Most cities have still not recovered completely, forty years later.
In Indianapolis that night, and the next day, there were no riots. The community held together.
Beautiful, Karen.
Thanks for your words, and his.
I remember the night Dr. King was murdered as if it were yesterday. I was 12 years old, and the product of a racist Italian-American culture. I was listening to a Ranger-Chicago Blackhawk playoff game when the broadcast was interrupted with news of his assassination. I thought to myself, there's one less troublemaker to worry about - but why are they interrupting a playoff game for this? I'm glad that he's dead.
Forty years later, I marvel that a man that courageous, that visionary, that blessedly determined, ever walked the earth.
I remember the night Dr. King was murdered as if it were yesterday. I was 12 years old, and the product of a racist Italian-American culture. I was listening to a Ranger-Chicago Blackhawk playoff game when the broadcast was interrupted with news of his assassination. I thought to myself, there's one less troublemaker to worry about - but why are they interrupting a playoff game for this? I'm glad that he's dead.
Forty years later, I marvel that a man that courageous, that visionary, that blessedly determined, ever walked the earth.
Karen, this double tragedy sent shockwaves around the world. That leaders with such vision of the strength in unity, love and compassion towards ourselves and each other, should be so brutally removed from the world is just an indication of that greedy, viscious and meanness of spirit that you speak of.
Matthew. Thanks for sharing that with us. And how glad I am that you grew out of that culture and into your own strengths and values which together with everyone else's in America at this time, have a chance to bring about the unity of which Dr King and Bobby Kennedy spoke.
Thanks, Woz. I didn't mean to share it twice...except that I was having trouble signing in with Internet Explorer 7 - which remains convinced that DCP is a Pfishing site (even though I've filled out their form numerous times, and explained that it is not) - and wasn't sure if it would let me even post. I've subsequently turned off the filter.
My experience of growing up in the Italian-American community, for instance, decidedly shapes my perspective on Geraldine Ferraro's comments about Obama. Racism and prejudice was endemic to Italian-American culture when I was growing up. My relatives often spoke openly, without any guilt or hesitation, about "blacks", Jews, etc - characterizing the behavior of entire ethnic and racial groups based on the crudest of stereotypes. They saw the world through tribal eyes. I would assume that there is less of it today among my generation of Italian-Americans - but I would also assume that traces of this primitive tribal perspective still lurk deep inside anyone who grew up in that culture.
This is beautiful and timely. Thanks so much.