In his career as a civic Doctor
Martin Luther King was outnumbered, gassed, clubbed, jailed without cause,
insulted, and harassed by federal agents.
But in all that, he never, not
once, issue a threat.
He never raised a fist in anger.
He never tossed a bomb or fired a
gun.
And yet, this one man, changed
the world and shook injustice to its very core. Through his career and his
sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, made with the absolute certainty that his
fellow Americans would carry on with his mission to make this nation a better
place, and we, a better people.
We are hurt. All of us across
this nation. We are stunned. We are humiliated in the eyes of the world and we
are angry. And justifiably so because what happened to George Floyd is
despicable.
I wish I had great and insightful
words, wise word, great words, that would heal us all, but I don’t have those
words.
What I can offer you this,
however, prayer. Pray for the soul of George Floyd. Pray that his family finds
peace. Pray for justice. Pray for an end to the violence and anger that is
separating us. Pray for healing.
Each and every one of us that
stands for reason, who stands for justice, every person who calls themselves a
child of God, and one nation under God, and we must conduct ourselves as
ambassadors of reconciliation and hope. Let us pray for forgiveness of those
who have wronged us as a people, and have committed injustice, because there is
no reconciliation without forgiveness.
I want to read something to you,
words that have always moved me. It’s from a speech that Senator Robert F.
Kennedy made on the day that Dr. King was killed. The Senator said this
“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 there 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…..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.
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 say a prayer for the family,
and 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
Let us, as citizens, live
exemplary lives as fair, decent, and good people who worked hard to create a
just and fair nation, and although we often failed, as humans so often do, let
them say “By God, at least they tried”