"Now let me suggest that if we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and the more we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we are all going to perish together as fools.
[...]
It really boils down to this: that all life is inter-related. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the inter-related structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of the French. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee in the morning and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And, maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous for having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And, then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And, before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this its inter-related quality. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the inter-related structure of all reality."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Friday, September 09, 2005
On "Peace on Earth"
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3 comments:
i use to like the bumpersticker that read "Visualize World Peace." Then I saw one I liked better that read, "Forget world peace, visualize using your turn signal." The sarcastic wit of the second reminds us that world peace will only be achieved by each of us doing our share...
nice post, thanks for the quote.
From which of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s work is this? I'd like to read more.
It's from his "A Christmas Sermon on Peace." Here's a link to that: http://twincities.indymedia.org/newswire/display/15382/index.php.
(Sorry, you'll have to cut and paste.)
Here is his Nobel Lecture from December 11, 1964: http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1964/king-lecture.html.
Both of them can be found in various MLK, Jr. anthologies, too.
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