Posted on: January 20th, 2013
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
?I have a dream?.that little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers??
Such great words were spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. We ponder them today, just as we did last year on the same day, and perhaps once or twice in between, if we are lucky enough to be reflective.
But, what if we didn?t just hear it as an annual inspirational speech or a reminder of what many communities haven?t quite aspired to even 50 years later?
What if we actually decided to live these words?
How would we do it?
I?m sure there are millions of amazing ideas of how to do it and so many that have done great things to live it out, but just in case we should live it more?how could we? Here are some ideas?some steps:
- Step One ? Acknowledge that we are all different. Color blindness doesn?t benefit race issues?though clearly equality is essential. Acting like we are all exactly the same doesn?t validate the individual experiences of any culture. Though we are all created equal, we are created different and have different things to offer and different ways of relating. Let us see each other (and ourselves) for whatever uniqueness (and sameness) we are.
- Step Two ? Face any prejudices you have. We all have some prejudice and some judgment, even if we aren?t willing to admit it. Crash is a good flick (but a hard movie to watch) that exposes many prejudices in different situations. If we are first honest with our prejudices, then we can make steps to amend them.
- Step Three ? Engage other cultures ? especially ones that you have tended to have negative thoughts about. Once we get to know people, know stories, and have relationships?we aren?t as likely to engage in hurtful judgment or assumptions. We can?t ? they are no longer someone separate, but our friends. Many communities are already doing great jobs at this. Let?s keep working at this.
- Step Four: Live it out in your family in many ways (May I suggest my favorite way?): Foster and adopt! Martin Luther King?s quote about little boys and girls likely expressed the hope for a day where there would be deep friendship across cultures, but, why not express it with real brothers and sisters? Why not bring this dream into the very threads of your family through adoption or through the needs of foster children? Thousands of children in America need permanent homes and hundreds of thousands need foster care, mentors, tutors and more. These are children of all cultural backgrounds that need us to see them for all the ways they are beautifully similar or wonderfully different than us to begin to heal them of their past.
Whatever we do, let us not be in the same place in the next 50 years. Let us give our grandchildren a legacy Martin Luther King Jr. would be honored by.
?An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.? Martin Luther King
Source: http://www.ctfostercareadoption.com/2013/01/martin-luther-king-jr-s-legacy-do-you-live-it/
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