Martin Luther King Day Draws Nigh

And I am musing on his message... that ( as Quakers point out ) we harm ourselves in the instant we harm another. He spoke to the harm to the White biggot, their hatred caused. I am thinking of those who he ministered to, some who hated him, some who came to love him... after...

The symbol of the confederate flag does not create the racist. I am not opposed to the understanding that many honorable and good people fought under it. Men like Robert E. Lee, a caring and good man, who strove to walk in the light of righteousness before God.

The southerner who slaps the stars and bars on his tee-shirt may commit the sin of separation because of the harm... the hurt, he does others... but everyone sins. The southerner who will not heed the voices who ask him to hark to their pain, that person wallows in his sin. The initial harm is to harden the heart. The harm after that is the hardening of the world around him. To listen is to begin to heal. Listening, is not coming to the end... there is no coming to the end. We always sin, but when one declares the end, the final conclusion, the closing of doors to each other... the world begins to die around us.