Feel
the Bend
“The arc
of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Doug Jones, newly elected
Senator from the State of Alabama, used this quote from Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. in his victory speech last night. These are words
that we would do well to tattoo on our hearts. Sometimes, in our
darkest hour, we find the light to see. We have certainly entered
into dark times here in America, and while one candidate does not a
turn the tables of a nation, it represents hope where there was only
an airless vacuum.
Being an eternal
optimist, I do believe with all my heart that the “arc of the moral
universe bends toward justice.” It has been proven over and
over—from Gettysburg to Appomattox, from Normandy to Berlin, from
Selma to Montgomery. Human rights can be denied for a time—for what
seems like an interminable length of time—but eventually, the human
heart changes, and they matter.
Unfortunately, we often
have to see what is ugliest in us for that change of heart to take
place. Sometimes it takes the in-your-face, inescapable reality of
that which is vile, that which is calculated to use and manipulate,
to bend us toward light. We have experienced that, too. Fifty
years ago we witnessed the police dogs and fire hoses turned on
children, the church bombing that killed four little girls, and Dr.
King, himself, locked behind the bars of the Birmingham jail. Today,
the bars of that jail can be found in a Civil Rights Museum, but we
had to lose Dr. King for that to happen. With victory, sacrifice.
Whether Doug Jones' victory represents a turning point or not, time will tell. But, here
on the ground in Alabama, it feels like a little bend in the moral
arc of the universe occurred overnight. For that I am well and truly grateful.
In the Spirit,
Jane
No comments:
Post a Comment