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The Shepherd's Voice
February 5, 2012
New Progressive Baptist Church
Vol. 6 No 2
G. Modele Clarke, D. Min., senior pastor
If There’s No Struggle, There’s no Progress
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops
without plowing up the ground. FREDRICK DOUGLASS, Aug. 3, 1857
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied the
sentiments of Fredrick Douglass about the relationship between struggle and progress
When we examine the relationship between struggle and progress we should see the embodiment of a principle which advocates advancement or freedom is never a gift. Freedom, in particular, is always wrenched away from the clutches of oppressors. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said: Change does not roll on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man cannot ride you unless your back is bent.
There is nothing inevitable about change because it isn’t a product of happenstance. Today, we’re witnessing political and social changes. We’re witnessing, for example, legal changes about same-sex marriage and changes about the international indifference regarding corporate greed. Whether we agree with them or not, these are real and significant changes that came about because of the tenacity of determined people who struggled relentlessly against the defenders of the status quo.
This is true of the Occupy Movement that originated on Wall Street and spread around the world. It is true of the 2011 Arab Revolution that spread from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen and heralded a new Arab, post-Islamist revolution. But change requires courage, conviction and commitment. It was that combination of courage, conviction that uncoupled Dr. King from a relatively comfortable, middle-class existence and propelled him into the tumultuous streets of Birmingham, Selma and Memphis.
It was that combination of courage, conviction and commitment that propped him up when he addressed multitudes at the Washington Monument. It was that combination that inspired him, when in solitude, he wrote the incredible Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He said, in part: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly …
So, what does it all mean for us? These words from the past will shake us from our seats of complacency, comfort and contentment and force us to take an inventory of our communities, our environment and our world and force us to take up the struggle on some level. Hopefully, these words from the past will inspire us to look introspectively at ourselves and conclude that it’s time to stop being spectators in the bleachers of life and step on to the playing field.
Dr. King’s greatness resulted from his commitment to struggle for the basic human rights of all people. He said: Our lives begin to end the day after we become silent about things that matter.
Excerpted from a Jan. 15, 2012 speech at the Woodstock MLK Commemorative Program.
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