I have a dream

In the US, January 18th is a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy (this day is his birthday). Yes, I realize I’m a day late 🙂 yesterday I was too tired to write two posts. Of course I could’ve just skipped it, but I feel the present world can use a reminder of the wise words he spoke.

Men often hate each other, because they fear each other; they fear each other, because they don’t know each other, they don’t know each other, because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.
MLK Jr.

Maybe people are not always literally separated anymore, but often their thinking and believes are. People don’t know each other and that creates fear.
Take the New Year’s eve attacks in Cologne in which several asylum seekers are suspect. I think most people will agree that that the attackers need to be brought to justice, no matter their color, country of origin or religion (and by justice I mean having a fair trial, not people taking matters in their own hands). And of course attacks like this cause fear and offence.

What frightens me though, is how some people (ab)use these attacks to demonize all Muslims (to them asylum seeker equals Muslim). And they make it seem as if the bad in the world comes from Muslims only, conveniently ignoring that a lot of bad things are being done by their “own” people. And apparently there are a lot of people that just believe that, seemingly without giving it any further thought. And the less you know about some else’s religion, believes and culture, the easier it is to think they are the root of all evil.

On Facebook I read the story of a Dutch lawyer. In short, this lawyer for 24 years stated that he couldn’t recollect any Muslim suspects in the rape cases he represented. He didn’t judge or approve or defend anyone or anything. He just told about his experience in his own practice. He tells about the reactions he got on his tweet. The mild ones accuse him of looking the other way, being stupid, being an autist etc. Others are wishing for him (and his family!) to be raped. And apparently there were responses that were just so horrific that they’ve been taken down.

It scares me that people who are protesting loudly against violence and threats (which is a good thing) are using such violent and aggressive language themselves when they think someone disagrees with them. After all, what someone does/says is a reflection of themselves, of their inner world, and honestly, this isn’t a pretty picture.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.
MLK Jr.

Let’s all think intensively and critically for ourselves and teach our children to do the same. And hopefully, one day my dream will come true; a world in which we all can live together in harmony and peace, respecting each other and accepting our differences that give the world it’s color.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
MLK Jr.