Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle, via Associated Press
An estimated 5 million people turned out last weekend at over 2,000 “No Kings” protest events held across America, from big cities like New York to small rural towns like Pentwater, Michigan, an 800-person city that hosted a 400-person “No Kings” protest. The 5 million were protesting against what they feel is President Donald Trump acting as if he were King of an American monarchy, instead of President of an American democracy. But considering that also last weekend a Minnesota State Representative and her husband were shot and killed, and a Minnesota State Senator and his wife were shot and severely injured there is a King America desperately needs now!!!
The King America desperately needs now is the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When most Americans think of him his “I Have A Dream” speech about racial equality is the first thing that comes to mind. But considering the state of violent chaos currently taking place in America, it’s not the racial equality King that America needs now. What America needs now more than ever is the fundamental King!!!
Dr. King said before he would define himself as a civil rights leader or a political leader he would define himself as a theologian of the Christian faith, in other words, he defined himself first and fundamentally as simply a Baptist preacher. Fundamental to Dr. King’s personal Christian faith was his strict adherence to the concept of agape love, it endowed Dr. King with a strong spiritual connection to all human beings, regardless of what faith they believed, regardless of their not having religious faith, regardless of their race or economic status, regardless of their nationality, and regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.
The fundamental King viewed all human beings as children of God, therefore he considered all human beings as his spiritual brothers and sisters that he was responsible to and responsible for. The fundamental King fueled Dr. King’s uncompromising commitment to practicing nonviolent conflict resolution in all facets of human life. He discovered that it’s much harder to be physically, verbally, emotionally, or spiritually violent with someone you feel a connection to or empathy for. As Dr. King said in a 1957 speech:
“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love, when we rise to love on the agape level, we love men not because we like them, not because their attitudes and ways appeal to us, but we love them because God loves them. Here we rise to the position of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does”.
Dr. King knew that differences of opinion, religious beliefs, political affiliations, economic status, and moral values would cause inevitable but acceptable conflict among human beings. The fundamental King knew that conflicts among human beings could be healthy if resolved nonviolently or harmful if resolved by using violence of any type.
Historians, educators, civil rights leaders, and political leaders all promote and highlight the racial equality King that led America to confront and defeat legal racial discrimination in the United States. The downside to only promoting the racial equality King is that it overshadows the fundamental King and his wisdom on how to resolve racial, economic, religious, social, philosophical, or political conflict nonviolently. The fundamental King’s doctrine that all human beings are spiritual brothers and sisters, empowered Dr. King to live and work by the principle of resolving all conflicts or disagreements in life nonviolently.
Resolving all conflicts or disagreements nonviolently doesn’t just mean the absence of physical violence, it also means the absence of verbal violence. That’s why not only was there never an inch of property damaged by any protest demonstration Dr. King ever led, but Dr. King would never allow a protestor to carry a protest sign that communicated anything violent, even against Civil Rights most violent opponents, such as Bull Conner is evil, Go to Hell George Wallace or Death To The klu klux klan. And unlike many American Blacks during the Civil Rights Movement, the fundamental King adamantly refused to use the term “Black Power”, because according to Dr. King, its use had “connotations of violence and separatism”.
Unfortunately at this time when America needs maximum exposure to the fundamental Martin Luther King Jr., books about Dr. King are being banned by some school districts. Banning books about Dr. King from American schools is ironic, considering the high volume of mass murder school shootings committed by students in the same schools they attend.
Maybe if the young assassins had been exposed in school to PRINCIPLE ONE of Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence which is:
Nonviolence Is a Way of Life for Courageous People
- It is not a method for cowards; it does resist.
- It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
- It is aggressive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
They might have chosen to be aggressive warriors who turned to the lessons of the fundamental King, to generate the necessary nonviolent tension or nonviolent disruption that would have brought attention to their cause or gripe, instead of choosing to be violent assassins who turned to an AR-15 assault rifle creating injury, pain, and death. Rather than banning books about Dr. King, students need to be exposed to books written by Dr. King like Strength to Love or Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community? Both books deal specifically with how to apply the fundamental King’s method of resolving conflict aggressively but nonviolently.
Dr. King led a nonviolent movement that accomplished what America’s most violent and deadliest war, the Civil War, did not. The nonviolent Civil Rights Movement brought the American government with the most powerful military force in human history to its knees, without ever having fired a single shot nor destructed a single inch of property!!! Martin Luther King Jr. is the world’s GOAT on how to focus attention or how to force change NONVIOLENTLY.
Dr. King’s Six Steps Of Nonviolent Social Change are accessible for use by everyone who seeks attention for their cause or a change in their circumstances. For instance, no matter how misguided or how wrong the January 6th Capitol Hill Insurrectionists were about the 2020 election being stolen from Donald Trump, there are fundamental King-inspired ways the Capitol Hill insurrectionists could have protested the 2020 election at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, without harming a blade of grass or breaching the secured doors of the U.S. Capitol, and still made their protest presence against the election results felt throughout America in a very impactful but nonviolent way.
Today many American citizens are operating in a challenge-the-status-quo mode, led by President Donald Trump who proudly admits to being a “disrupter” of the status quo, this has created a Make America Great Again versus Keep America Great friction in America. Friction occurring within a democracy is an indication of a healthy democracy, friction and disagreement are never the problem in a democracy it is how the friction and disagreement are resolved that will always be the problem. Using nonviolence to protest against the status quo is as democratic as using nonviolence to protest for the status quo is, conversely using violence to protest for the status quo is as autocratic as using violence to protest against the status quo is.
Democracy cannot exist if the people who live within it are all forced to think alike, therefore if people are free to think independently for themselves conflict is always bound and normal to happen. The best way to avoid the potential death and violence disagreements and conflicts can create would be for American society, to immerse itself in the Kingian nonviolent principles and practices that Dr. King exampled during his life.
In February during Black History Month, it is still appropriate for America’s schools and colleges, religious institutions, cultural institutions, federal, state, and local governments, corporations, the news media, and the entertainment industry to continue to promote and highlight the racial equality King, because America has only conquered conscious racism unfortunately unconscious systemic racism remains. But to address the issue of resolving disagreement and conflicts peacefully in America, they all must do their part to promote and EDUCATE 100% of America about the fundamental King, March thru January, every year starting now until we create Dr. King’s Beloved Community.
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