MLK Jr Day in Book Two: The Fifteenth Year of the Third Millennium of the Common Era

A departure from the regular. One of the reasons many people had hoped I would go to seminary is I have a tendency to do sermons well. A pinch of dramatic, a helping of hope, a slab of text, and a good message. If giving sermons was the only thing involved with being a Pastor, maybe it would have been a place for me to go. But there is so much more. Particularly, dealing with people’s problems in a spiritual and an emotional sense. That I couldn’t do. Because after hearing the same person go through the same situation over and over again… honest case in point. A young woman, aged 14, began a life of sexual encounters. I was a peer councilor of 20 at the time. I gave her the mandatory literature, encouraged her that her self-worth needn’t come from illicit behavior… and that wasn’t it. It was genuinely… the girl had developed early, had all manner of suitors, and enjoyed sex. CATCH… she was allergic to latex. For five years, I had to sit and do the Peer Counseling thing of listening, caring, encouraging, and advising… but after 3 abortions before the age of twenty? Yeah… that is the reason I’m not a pastor… or at least one of them.

Anyway, got off track. I’m sharing any of that because… thinking about MLK today and the issues we’re facing in the world right now… I was possessed of a sermon. But with no place to preach it (and, as a sermon, it best befitting a “live show” audience) I wanted to see if I could maybe turn it into a bit of a beat poem. Forgive me if its foolish.

Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere

In the world today, we’re so obsessed with division
that we make certain to label everyone with absurd precision.
We divide ourselves by wealth, color, creed, and our gender
and proclaim in a shout that this fight we’ll never surrender;
that since the world is about the divides and the splits
we can focus on hatred and deny our wits.

But justice is greater than our shortsighted mind set
and while we’re all fighting, we don’t see the real threat.
Justice has not gone away to be silent
We’ve just kept ignoring it, isn’t it time yet
to stop with the fingers and stop with excuses
And realize everyone here has their uses.

A white man is guilty, a black man is free
Is that really the only things we can see?
Shouldn’t we ask if the system is working
or if all the institutions are shirking
the duties we gave them when honor still mattered
or has our concept of right and wrong been so shattered
that we don’t care about facts and don’t care about justice
but only the labels we assign “Are they like us?”

Do we quickly defend those we see as our peer group
despite what the truth is? Don’t you feel duped?!
If a person goes hungry and dies here tonight
should it matter if he was yellow, brown, black or white?
If a person’s assaulted and left bleeding and wounded
are you afraid of offending, and sitting there muted
because the first question that came to your head
wasn’t” did the victim survive are they dead”
but your first concern was for race or wealth status
to see if it fit your agenda? How bad is
the world that we live in if people don’t matter
when they stand up in life and say “Yes, I was battered”
But he’s quickly told “Silence, you’re missing the message
that this is a women’s issue.” Isn’t that presage
that it isn’t justice we’re working towards now
but an inverse injustice and please tell me how
a crime met with crime is ever okay
while a conversation on peace is needed today?

We should all be so angry and all be so riled
that we stand in one voice and refuse to be beguiled
by the political bastards and the divisive folk
that see a path to unity but never invoke
a proper sense of togetherness we can all stand behind
because for them, there’s no power or wealth there to find.

Take every occasion and every event
where injustice happened and see what was sent
It wasn’t a time for justice or peace
because nobody cared in the least
about trying to make this a better place to be
they just kept saying “what’s in it for me?”

The point I’ve been making, and gone on too long
is we have to relearn what is right from what’s wrong
If hating a concept is the best we can do
what will happen when that concept is you?
If it is ever okay for a guilty man to be free
or a rich man to be robbed, or anyone to bleed
then we’re not talking justice since justice is blind
we’re talking revenge and what’s in that to find?

Injustice anywhere is always a threat
to the justice each person always should get.
So if you’ll indulge me, please take a pause
to think of the times when you knew what right was
and if you can join me and help us all to be
A People of Justice, A Home For the Free.