By Polo Munoz, Managing Editor/Publisher
“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
This year will be full of conflict and pain, full of fear and injustice, full of naiveté and hate, unless we again start paying attention to the person whose life we look to for guidance and example of courage and love, Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King Jr. did not do what he did so that we could just remember his actions, but so that we would also mimic his works and that we would have a framework and path to follow. If we don’t begin from a framework of love, many more will die; the children and the adults in the cages are only the beginning. 2020 has the potential to be a year where many conflicts will turn more aggressive because there is no longer any room to compromise to hate. Dr. King was murdered because he wanted to make sure there was a voice that spoke truth to power, power that was corrupt.
In this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday we need to consider what he said and why he said it. “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness,” is a timeless comment that must be considered by every individual and in some cases that has been laid our bare through the choices we have been facing. We are experiencing injustices daily and much of it by folks we would have never thought would hurt a fly. Much of the hate that led to Dr. King’s murder is back on display and much of the population is not saying much, they rather just let “things settle” and they won’t unless the moral compass that led Dr. King to do what he did is embraced fully.
We are losing our grasp in truth because the folks in power benefit from fear and confusion. The orchestrated attack on human rights; on the poor, the handicapped, the needy and those different, continues to be driven by a twisted mentality that looks at Dr. King’s legacy as an aberration, but we know that at the end of the day what Dr. King said stands as truthful now as it did when he first said it: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”