HOPE

I have 100 Martin Luther King Jr. quotes and am going to choose the ones I like best. There are patterns I had not noticed. MLK never gave up. MLK realized that he was always seeing only the tip of the iceberg. MLK had alot of Zen in him as well as Ghandi. MLK was at times prophetic, almost psychic. MLK was Christian and I am Buddhist but he was in the overlap region where both religions are pure, not corrupted by false prophets and preachers. MLK recognized the futility felt with protest, though it may be cathartic. Above all, MLK recognized the great danger of complacency and comfort by the "moderate" and unengaged, and that the power-hungry and oppressive would never rest. (I am paraphrasing and making my own interpretation, as I am not familiar with the context of alot of these quotes and they are blowing me away. Some of them are reminding me of he to whom the "Countdown Clock" refers (and who seems to represent consummate evil, the more we reflect.)

My African-American neighbors just took off to fly from Seattle to Washington DC for the Inauguration and I am starting to pack for my "red eye." Someone at work asked me, "Are you getting excited about the Inauguration?" I realized this morning that I was probably at least as excited about being in Washington DC for the first time in more then 30 years and for MLK Day!

"A lie cannot live."

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. "

"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. "

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."

"I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law."

"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well."

"If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."

"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

"Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness."

"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals."

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

"Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, "Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary."

"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."

"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

"The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility."

"The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice."

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. "

"Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. "

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. "

I have taken a photograph of a wall in Seattle, on Martin Luther King Way, upon which is written one of the quotations above.