Martin Luther King Jr. - What America Owes Its Immigrants

As part of social activism calendar, we are marking  MartinLuther King Jr. Day (January 19) with a short speech by Mr. King. It is a short speech, barely filling a half of a page of text, but it was chosen because it is a topic that is currently of a compelling relevance, with major wars wreaking havoc in Eurasia and the Middle East, record refugee numbers, domestic violence epidemics, and an urban homelessness crisis, we can see how far we have gone from the imperfect, utopic, yet optimistic, idealistic, 1960s baby-boom period. We can see here how many of the problems are based on an inability for peaceful, tolerant  and equitable co-existence.

 

Although short, it still eloquently and poetically shows how Theosophical values of compassion, tolerance, inclusiveness, universal brother/sisterhood, oneness of humanity, global inter-connectedness, which can form a solid foundation for equal human rights and justice for all, beyond all forms of discrimination, exclusion and partiality. Moreover, there is reference to the doctrine of karma ('If we deny justice to the newcomer today, tomorrow that denial will find its way back to our own doorstep.') As King pithily puts it:' 

“We may have all come on different SHIPS, but we’re in the same BOAT now.”

 

My brothers and my sisters, we stand again at a threshold of conscience, a place where the nation must decide whether it will live the creed it carved into stone or continue to run from the promise it made to the world. For too long, America has stretched out her hand to the weary and the wandering, yet pulled it back when the stranger drew near. But I am here to say that a nation cannot bless the earth while building walls around its own compassion. 

 

Some say close the gates. Some whisper there is not enough room at the table. But I say to you, fear is a poor architect of a house meant for freedom. This land was not shaped by one color or one tongue. It was carved by the sweat of immigrants, the dreams of refugees, and the blood of the enslaved. Together they built a nation that has not always loved them back. We are told that newcomers are burdened. But history testifies that the immigrant is the seed of renewal. The bold soul who leaves the known for the unknown. And by courage alone, it spans the boundary of what is possible. 

 

Let us never forget nobody chooses to uproot their life for comfort. People cross deserts and oceans because staying means death, despair or silence. We who preach liberty to the nations cannot turn our backs when the nations come knocking at our door. And though men draw borders with pins and fences, God draws only one circle, the circle of humanity. Within that circle, no race is foreign, no language is alien and no child is illegal. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

 

If we deny justice to the newcomer today, tomorrow that denial will find its way back to our own doorstep. The chains forged for one group soon rattle on the wrist of us all. My friends, the question before us is not simply who belongs here, but who are we willing to become? Will we be the nation that trembles when strangers arrive? Or the nation that remembers it was once a stranger itself? Will we clutch our blessings like misers? Or scatter them like seeds destined to grow. 

 

Let us choose the courage of welcome. Let us build bridges wider than the rivers and hearts deeper than the politics of the moment. And when history turns the page and our grandchildren ask, "How did you treat the ones who came seeking refuge?" Let us answer with clear voices and clean hands. We widened the door. We stood for dignity. We believe the world is big enough for all of God's children. For that is how freedom rises. Not by shutting people out, but by inviting the world in and daring to live as one human family. 

 

See also:

https://blavatskynews2.blogspot.com/2020/06/blavatsky-american-feminist-civil.html 

https://theosophyproject.blogspot.com/2020/06/in-writings-andspeeches-of-eloquent-and.html