Memorials

The dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial in Washington yesterday illustrates for me a human tendency which can distract us from humanist values of universal equality and justice. 

I wept as I watched the "I have a dream" speech in 1963 on television. I wept when I heard of Dr. King's assassination in 1968. His approach to human rights and social equality inspired many of us when we were involved with early gay rights demonstrations in the face of brutal hatred. We were nonviolent and inclusive. That was the King model, as it was the Gandhi model. We believed it would overcome.

The sculpting of King into a Soviet-like monster statue stands in stark contrast to the life-size statue of Gandhi here in Boston's Dewey Square, where Occupy Boston now expresses another generation's quest for equality and justice. While it is important to carry our human history with us, idolizing one person or one period of our human history can obscure the message of the advances made by that person or period. Dr. King reminded us of the power of the one, when speaking truth on behalf of the many to unjust power. Carrying that memory does not require a stone memorial on a mall in a seat of power.

In light of this core value of Dr. King and those like him in history, the best memorial to them at any given time are those who live their message by nonviolently resisting oppression and saying "No" to unjust power and corruption. While the powerful may gloat over giant statues, perhaps in hopes that they someday will also be cast in monstrous stone, human progress is in the hands of the living who tend the fires of human equality and universal justice with their voices and nonviolent actions.