Pictures today were taken as I traveled last summer.
As we celebrate Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, it is perhaps time to look again at his most famous speech. I am not accusing or defending either side in the current political mess. That is not what this site is about. I do believe that we, as Americans, can express our dissatisfaction with whatever we disagree with without resorting to violence.
I have traveled by micro camper across this nation and back four times since 2019, and twice across Canada to Alaska, and I was never treated with anything but respect and courtesy, whether in Canada, Maine, Washington, California, Georgia, or in any state in between. I have camped in the woods, in parking lots, and in campgrounds. I have met dozens of people in quilt shops, parks, grocery stores, and laundromats, and found common ground with each of them, no matter what race, religion, or gender they were. I would pray – and ask you to pray with me – that we as a nation can work together toward the essential dignity Dr. King describes in his speech. It will be 60 years on August 28, 2023, later this year. It’s time to start working together instead of tearing each other apart.
Dr. King was speaking of racial relationships. I believe his plea is just a valid today and applies equally to ALL human relationships, whether between races or between genders or between political parties. We need to internalize his plea:
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the worn threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force….
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be plain and the crooked places will be made straight, “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brother-hood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day.
Stop back on Thursday and see where the North American Shop Hop is visiting next.