With malice towards none...

Four high sounding words. Words we all agree with.

Except for that particular grouping of folks over there. You know who they are.

You can tell, because they're different. Not the same.

They call god by a different name. Their soul mate is the same gender as him/her.

With malice towards none. I get the feeling that somewhere along the line, Martin Luther King, Jr. read, or heard, those words, or words very much like them.

It's why so many of us admire the man. He lived those words, most every single day of his life, 'til someone who'd not heard those words, or ones very much like them, took his life.

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Abraham Lincoln said those words well over a century ago, after the United States had just concluded a horrific civil war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides had died, many thousands more horribly maimed. How many civilians perished isn't exactly known...we can safely assume many thousands. An entire societal system had been destroyed. ...and it may be safely assumed (again...) that there were lingering hard feelings over that, and a host of other problems brought about, and to light, by the war.

In his speech, he attempted to begin the healing of those wounds, and later would die as a direct result of the hatred those wounds instilled in far too many. Amazingly enough, we're still dealing with the fallout from those wounds...

Odd, is it not? A war fought by, in my case, my great-great grandfather, and great-grandfathers...has stark undeniable remifications for a grand child none ever met, or knew would ever exist.

Since those problems pre-dated the American Civil War by many thousands of years, it really shouldn't surprise us...should it?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a child of segregation. Of Jim Crow. Of casual, off hand discrimination that, I can only imagine, must have cut him like a knife. Yet he believed in those words quoted above. Believed, and lived. Though who knows what he thought in the wee hours of the mornings when life can truly weigh one down, and you can't see an ending in sight.

Four little words. Four profound words.




Many men and women died living those words. Many more were beaten, or thrown into jail for living those words. They knew it might happen. Knew, that they might die, or be badly hurt.




If those folks, black and white, Christian and Jew, could march knowing what might happen? How can we not do at least a little to fight their fight? Finish their march, as it were?

I know I've written words like this on several occasions in the past few years...you'd think I'd get tired of it. Wouldn't you? Nope, not happenin'.

I make no pretense of being a leader. Or terribly erudite. Because I'm neither of those. But sometimes, just sometimes, I find a cause that just won't be ignored...




If they can live those words, why can't we?

Happy Birthday.

a reply to: seagull
Thanks for reminding us from time to time to fight for what is right.

I just watched 'The War, by Ken Burns' about WW2. The black soldiers that fought for ALL of us came home to riding in the back and not being allowed to eat at the counter. Boggles my mind.
I have had racism against me for being white at work also and it still blows my mind. I hear something about 'casper milk toast' as I walk by. WTF?

I would sit at 'the black table' with friends at work and then have white people ask why I sat there. WTF?

Racism is still alive and thriving, in all colors.

I just don't see color and can't understand people who do.

Keep up the good fight seagull and thank you for the reminder

Well done, seagull, well done!!

We are a great nation precisely because of the things like the above that we do. Yes, we must continue their march. "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

a reply to: stosh64

I know. I've seen it, even to an extent, experienced it.

...and it amazes me every single time, though I suppose it shouldn't. It's easier to meet hatred with hatred. To return fire in kind.

Ashamed to say it, I've done it. I could plead that I was young, I was, stupid, beyond question...and I'd be right. Yet, I was wrong, too.

Hate begets hate. Nothing more. At some point shouldn't we at least try something different? As I grow older, and I've got more behind me than I do ahead, I've tried to do something different. Does it work? No, not always...but at least I'm not the one doing the hurting. Being hurt? Yes. It hurts being hated for something I have no control over.

There's a lesson there...somewhere. One it would be wise for some to learn.

a reply to: desert

Amen, my friend. Amen.

"Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we're free at last." How could we not want that?

youtu.be... I Hope I am doing this right. If I have not I am attempting to embed Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark's song "Southern". If I screwed this up maybe someone can help out. "Southern" is always appropriate on MLK Day. Great thread! Bravo Zulu.

a reply to: seagull

Many men and women died living those words. Many more were beaten, or thrown into jail for living those words. They knew it might happen. Knew, that they might die, or be badly hurt.

This reminded me of the book "Five Smooth Stones," by Ann Fairbairn. Goodreads gives it 4.5 stars.

David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggle over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront. First published in 1966, this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.

It's one of my all-time favorite books. It is one of those rare novels that touched my soul in the most profound way, both breaking my heart and making my heart sing in turn. If you choose to read it, expect to cry -- or at least shed a couple tears.

Thank you for the beautiful post.