True peace sometimes requires disruptive change. Although we often think of peace in terms of maintaining the status quo: "keeping the peace", or not "ruffling feathers", I don't believe that we should ever remain complacent in the face of injustice. If Martin Luther King Jr. had "kept the peace" and remained complacent towards the unjust laws that prevailed at the time, or if Rosa Parks had been obedient and given up her seat on the bus just because of the color of her skin in order to avoid conflict, necessary changes may not have come about.
Today, as we honor Martin Luther King Jr., I would like to take a few moments to reflect on the values he embraced and lived out through powerful acts of nonviolent, peaceful protest. He knew that there cannot be true peace as long as all men and women are not treated equally, with dignity and respect. In a speech delivered in Montgomery, Alabama on March 25, 1965, he said: "We must come to see that at the end we seek a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience." He recognized that he was not living in peaceful times, but that the ideals of peace, love and respect for all must be held in one’s heart and be the catalyst for change.
“Power at its best is
love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power
correcting everything that stands against love.” –
MLK, August 19,1967
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