What would MLK want us to remember him for on this day and every day. Would it be six words “Life, liberty and justice for all” or one word, “justice”. This one word rings out in many of his speeches and quotes. It’s the word many other wise souls have used and the basis of ‘the Golden Rule’.
"Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. ... No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." MLK
He is also known for his “arch of history bends toward justice” words. It appears it doesn’t do it on its own, but requires the force of human will and action.
President Obama’s farewell address three years ago referenced our Declaration of Independence. He said, “these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing.” It appears now that our optimism that the arch bends on its own has failed us. Obama did mention “justice” three times, but not in the context of ‘justice for all’ globally. I don’t remember Trump ever mentioning it except in the context of flawed reasoning in defending against his own impeachment.
I don’t believe either party or Presidential candidate will make ‘justice for all’ their highest priority in the coming election. It’s not hard to predict the costly consequences this will have on virtually all of unsustainable trends heading away from justice. Obama did reference George Washington’s final farewell address and his warning regarding the dangers of hyper-partisanship, excessive debt, and foreign wars. These are only 3 of the seventy unsustainable trends I’ve identified so far. Any one is a caustic factor capable of toppling democratic principles when the voters and our constitution ignore what Washington advocated in his address “justice towards all nations”.
The injustices in our streets, our economy, our foreign/military/intelligence policy, our environment, or our increasingly and irreversibly interdependent world, will not end well.
Most unsustainable trends exist because of the gap between the flawed American principles we now have and the fundamental principles our nation was founded on. Pride of patriotism, national borders, and a political party instead “liberty and justice for all’ is our greatest flaw. This misplaced pride has weakened the very foundation that our government’s systems and structures that depend on our trust in the media, science, our election process, and the promises of candidates.
We persistently hear about the great value of our nation’s ‘rule of law’. Its value over the “law of force” should be self-evident. Any close study of the evolution of weapons and war should make it clear. This is the greatest trend that now threatens both freedoms, security, prosperity and democracy.
President Lincoln appears to have understood what George Washington recognized and what MLK knew well. If we as Americans fail to apply the universal standard of ‘justice for all’, to all, we can never protect our freedom and security.
Arguably, the greatest speech in history, The Gettysburg Address, begins with reference to the fundamental principle used in our nation’s creation “all men are created equal”. “Four Score and Seven years ago” refers to the Declaration of Independence, not the U.S. Constitution. More importantly, in his conclusion he said, We should forever remember what he declared that “the great task remaining before us” is “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…”.
Even decades after MLK’s assassination our nation’s love and desire for freedom is faltering. The endless war on terrorism requires increasing loss of our privacy if we are serious in stopping the mass murder of Americans before it happens.
The primary task before us is to insist that government, at every level (local, state, national and global) be ‘of the people, by the people for the people’, so ‘we the people of the world, shall not perish from the earth. That will require a majority of us keeping the pledge that every American has spoken with hand over heart “I pledge”… “liberty and justice for all”.
I’m confident MLK would agree. But which candidate in this election year will make it their top priority. And if they do, will ‘we the people’ elect her or him?
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