Chaos Or Community

We lost a visionary 40 years ago on this date.

And we will not see another as authentic as Martin Luther King Jr. in our lifetimes.

One of the youngest recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for his painstaking civil rights,
Black rights, workers, and fair union rights work, but also for a better future for all - and alll, without being naive.

All because one man decided to just stand up and say what needed to be said.

In 'Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?' King commences with
Lyndon Johnson signing The Voting Bill of Rights of 1965, where the President pledged "We shall overcome".
And declared that the national Government must, by law, ensure every Black his full rights as a citizen.

In 'Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?' King mentions, and includes the end of Fanon's book 'The Wretched Of The Earth'. Fanon's conclusion to his book is as follows, in case you haven't read either book yet.

So, comrades let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions and societies which draw their inspiration from her.
Humanity is waiting for something other from us than such imitations which would be almost an obscene caricature.
If we want to turn Africa into a new Europe, and America into a new Europe, then let us leave the destiny of our countries to Europeans. They will know how to do it better than the most gifted among us.

But if we want humanity to advance a step further, if we want to bring it up to a different level that that which Europe has shown it, then we must invent and we must make discoveries.

If we wish to live up to our people's expectations, we must seek the response elsewhere than in Europe.
Moreover, if we wish to reply to the expectations of the people of Europe, it is no good sending them back a reflection, even an ideal reflection,of their society and their thought with which from time to time they feel immeasurably sickened.
For Europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man.'

Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to point out with that passage: Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. And the only starting point, of which we have yet to ever try, in all of mankind's unkind history is ceasing the use of violence - 'eye for an eye makes everyone blind'.

Chapter 5 of 'Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?' is titled: 'Where Are We Going'. and describes all restrictions that weren't being lifted for Black people in America.

40 years on, we're able to see where things are 'at'.

When one looks close at what on earth this intangible 'it' is that prevents people from growing, from thinking differently, from evolving beyond what was incorrectly taught....

...."it" is both a lack-of-a-thing, thus ignorance ensures ignorance...
....and an absence of light, or love, or care, support, & goodness from good people.

When there is no sense of acceptance, unconditional love, connection, community, all-in-life-together...darkness within a person & population descends.

But always keep in mind the 4 laws of the universe (there really are 4 laws).
1. The Universe Works toward a balance.
2. Nothing ever disappears, they only change state. (wood to heat, fire, smoke, ash all kept within the universe)
3. (this you're not going to believe but it's true) There is no darkness. There is only a lack-of-light.
4. There are different truths...there is energy, and quanta (waves and chunks & particles)...both totally different,
with different configurations and structure, each describing a different set of rules within our same universe.

Here is Martin Luther King's own concluding words in 'Where Do We Go From Here...?"

We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. the "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on....." We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance to choose between chaos and community.


Martin Luther King Jr.
January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968

Assassinated at age: 39 in Memphis Tennessee.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".