By failing to actively take a stand for good, we have become agents of evil.
None of us who remain silent and impassive in the face of evil, racism, extreme materialism, meanness, intolerance, cruelty, injustice and ignorance get a free pass.
Those among us who follow figureheads without question, who turn a blind eye to injustice and turn their backs on need, who march in lockstep with tyrants and bigots, who allow politics to trump principle, who give in to meanness and greed, and who fail to be outraged by the many wrongs being perpetrated in our midst, it is these individuals who must shoulder the blame when the darkness wins.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that," King sermonized.
The darkness is winning.
It's winning in our communities. It's winning in our homes, our neighborhoods, our churches and synagogues, and our government bodies.
It's winning in every new generation that is being raised to care only for themselves, without any sense of moral or civic duty to stand for freedom.
We are on the wrong side of the revolution.
"If we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution," advised King, "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society."
Freedom demands that we stop thinking as Democrats and Republicans and start thinking like human beings, or at the very least, Americans.
Freedom demands that we not remain silent in the face of evil or wrongdoing but actively stand against injustice.
Freedom demands that we treat others as we would have them treat us. That is the law of reciprocity, also referred to as the Golden Rule, and it is found in nearly every world religion, including Judaism and Christianity.
In other words, if you don't want to be locked up in a prison cell or a detention camp--if you don't want to be discriminated against because of the color of your race, religion, politics or anything else that sets you apart from the rest--if you don't want your loved ones shot at, strip searched, tasered, beaten and treated like slaves--if you don't want to have to be constantly on guard against government eyes watching what you do, where you go and what you say--if you don't want to be tortured, waterboarded or forced to perform degrading acts--if you don't want your children to grow up in a world without freedom--then don't allow these evils to be inflicted on anyone else, no matter how tempting the reason or how fervently you believe in your cause.
As long as we continue to allow ignorance, intolerance, racism, militarism, materialism and meanness to trump justice, fairness and equality, there can be no hope of prevailing against the police state.
Martin Luther King Jr. dared to dream of a world in which all Americans "would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
He didn't live to see that dream become a reality.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).