Posted on 06/26/2017 4:59:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
At a time when our country talked about equal opportunity but continued to deny equal rights for so many Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. used non-violence and peaceful protests to help change a country. He trained like-minded Americans to walk in civil protests while avoiding attacking those who opposed their civil rights mission.
King wrote: "Compassion and nonviolence help us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear their questions, to know their assessment of ourselves. For from their point of view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers and sisters who are called the opposition."
Having courageous civil demonstrations was not his goal; he wanted to change America. King knew that threatening, violent demonstrations do more to fuel hatred and empower the opponents’ resolve than invite needed transformation.
Violence was a moral boundary King refused any of his people to breach. He warned in 1958, "Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love." King sold them on civility and trained them in non-violence. His compassionate stand for America to live up to its stated ideals of freedom and equal rights for all made him hard to hate.
Today, people on both sides of our political divide are concerned, even depressed, by the violence and polarized comments that are leaving our country as divided as it has been in decades. Unfortunately, the media makes money by giving voice to the extremes, and we have no one on the national scene that matches King’s stature or wisdom. But each of us can work for a change in civility starting with ourselves.
In recent months, members from three local California churches came together for a three-week series titled, Make America Civil Again(www.MakeAmericaCivilAgain.com). The focus was less on winning or losing arguments on tough issues, and more on learning courageous dialogue skills that could be used to encourage understanding, foster critical thinking, and explore workable solutions that promote the common good.
The following civility conversation ground rules proved to be most helpful no matter what issue was discussed:
Don’t assume bad intent. Show empathy and tolerance for differences. Good people disagree. Well-intentioned patriots exist on both sides of any divide.
Stay Calm. When angry count to ten…very angry to a hundred. It’s better to end a conversation and take time to cool down than to let escalating anger destroy a valued relationship.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Ask good questions and then really listen. Say “Tell me more about…” and “Let me see if I understand…”
Make your argument without assuming you’re right or that the other should know why. Affirm points of agreement and common ground early while working to bring clarity to your position.
Do your homework and build depth to your convictions and your understanding of opposing views.
Talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager has asserted that the American trinity can be found on every coin and dollar bill—In God We Trust, Liberty, and E Pluribus Unum (out of many one). America was built on God-given rights that no king or party could take away, liberty that makes the freedom of every American as important as your own, and a unity that transforms our diversity into a rich woven cord of national strength.
Martin Luther King, Jr. used non-violent demonstrations to call citizens to those values in a time of transformation. In 1963, King spoke to the power of the people when he said, "We did not hesitate to call our movement an army. But it was a special army, with no supplies but its sincerity, no uniform but its determination, no arsenal except its faith, no currency but its conscience."
It’s time we collectively affirm and live out those same values once again. Choose civility and non-violence. Make a difference for civility one conversation at a time.
MLK was considered a washed-up hasbeen by the Civil Rights community by the time he was assassinated in 1968. Others, more radical, were taking the mantle.
The whole point is this- attempting to make a good-faith argument against people who want to destroy you will never work.First, you have to defeat them. Then, with them lying prostrate at your feet, you can begin to make your opinions known to them.
Gee, I wonder if Soros will read this and stop funding all the riots and attacks?
First step...get rid of low life scumbag Democrats.....
MLK served the chosen agenda. The people making the most noise and threats today are serving the very same agenda.
Too many are entrenched in Gooberment and media with interests aligned to take America down.
You got that right.
I'm willing to be civil (a soon as we get some good old fashioned payback) if the other side is too. But the problem is that the lowlifes that make up the dem party have absolutely no concept of civility.
You have got to be joking. He should have been deported decades ago.
Democrats are shooting people.
Democrats are stabbing people.
Democrats are organizing street rallies which usually turn violent and cause property damage.
Elizabeth Warrant (and others) are always on TV screeching, spitting and spewing vile hatred.
And on the other hand, Trump sometimes Tweets stuff which hurts their feelings.
Media Conclusion: Everyone needs to clean up their act, but mostly Trump.
The democrat party substituted Alinsky for King decades ago. Without imaginary victims fighting for more free stuff, the party would dissolve.
Not much chance of that happening.
As school kids we learned the old axiom "United We Stand - Divided We Fall".
But that was in the days before democrats went insane.
Now to advance their own interests and gain power and wealth they have divided America into warring tribes.
We have the blacks, the browns, the Black-Lives Matter gang, the cop killers, "gays", cross dressers, muslim terrorists, the open borders crowd, globalists, femi-Nazis, pussy hatters, snowflakes, climate-nuts, greenies.....
Today we aren't much different than Africa in the last century - the only difference is the level of violence.
But that is coming - we see it increasing in intensity and becoming more common every day.
Democrats thrive on hate, dis-unity and violence.
Notice how the democrat rhetoric is always about fighting?
Even after 8 years of democrat rule they are still crying about fighting the same boogeymen they were scaring people with when George W. Bush got elected.
Now the democrat created "tribes" aren't only fighting conservatives and republicans - they have started fighting among themselves, with the democrat party, and anyone else they can blame for their own failings.
Sorry, I forgot the “/S”.
It’s amazing that none of MLK, Jr.’s very meaningful statements ever survived his death. They certainly haven’t been taught to succeeding generations as they should have been. Why on earth did they build that shrine to him in DC if they aren’t going to recall and heed his words? Why a federal holiday for him? Meaningless! Any black man with the same intent as MLK and since MLK has been destroyed by his own people. People have been blinded by the hatred spewed by the democrats...
It may have been MLK that led the movement. But I always felt it was Louis P. Armstrong that won our hearts over.
Sorry but we are way beyond the kumbayah in this pathetic article. I don’t want to listen to the globalist one world govt ideas that are trying to turn my country into a place neither God nor I recognize. I want to extinguish those ideas and as time goes by I am getting less picky on how to achieve it.
Don't you mean Givernment?
America is not civil because the press does not want it to be. Civil does not produce an audience. Because the major media are hurting for audiences the media is saying anything to create strong emotions. The terrible decline of Radio, TV, Cable and Print has destroyed journalism as we once knew it. Good journalism is expensive and normally it produces luke warm stories that educate rather than motivate their followers.
Cable especially requires live entertainment to slow cord cutting. Sports can do a good job to hold certain audiences. But women are less likely to buy cable just for sports. CNN, MSNBC and FOX are doing everything they can to get their viewers to show up every night and there is no better way than to drum up a scandal every day.
America has seen this before. In the days before newspaper delivery and Radio, Newspapers depended on boys screaming headlines to sell papers. The most sensational stories often sold the most papers. But with TV networks, money poured into news rooms. And news tried to be less controversial because advertisers did not want to alienate audiences. NBC did not want to be known as only a democrat network allowing ABC to be a centrist station. But now Comcast and other cable providers don’t mind offering a republican network and a democrat network just to sell cable subscriptions. Advertisers can either put adds on both or move their ads to less controversial networks like USA owned by MSNBC’s parent or Fox Business owned by FOX News’s parent.
It’s like Churchill said, “If we meet the Nazis halfway, letting them conquer only half of Europe, maybe we can have peace.”
/sarcasm
No one is perfect, but I remember the Civil Rights flood tide -- Louis Armstrong, Sammy Davis Jr, Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby, Martin Luther King, Jack Robinson -- these were people that America loved. No one dreaded these people. The thought that some basic rights were denied to upstanding US citizens was abhorrent and changed how America viewed race.
Michael Brown?
Trayvon Martin?
Snoop Dogg?
Maxine Waters?
I don't want to live in a neighborhood with these people.
Very well put.
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