A Call to Conscience

The Delta has slowed to a home-like pace. I've learned the short-cuts and back-ways to my favorite places. I've gained that familiarity with the area that makes one say, "I don't even remember how I got here" after shifting the car into 'park'. Nevertheless, the pace of change in the world has not slowed. The presidential baton has been passed and the Dow has dived. Our national conviction in our powerful economic system has shaken our confidence, and for some, given us the down right shake-down. In the wake of these changes, economic and social disparities abound. While commentators opine on which avenue, the re-enforcement of our staid power brokers or the assistance of our every-day, will best lead us to stability, words to wisdom can be gleaned from a 1967 address Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made to the SCLC. The pace of life here in the Delta has allowed me the time to read some of Dr. King's key speeches. So, while like is slow down here, hopefully this reflection will give all of you out there some insight into our current, fast-paced, ever-changing times. Enjoy.

"There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused the philosopher Nietzche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject Nietzsche's philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love.
Now we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on."

-- MLK "Where Do We Go From Here?"