Brown Girl Excursions on Tumblr

It appears that yesterday as a woman in PA was searching for words to articulate her feelings about the celebratory spirit that had erupted across the county in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden, she posted a quote from Dr. King, but introduced it with her own sentiment: ” I mourn the deaths of thousands…enemy”.  As it was re-posted her sentiment became incorporated into the quote that circulated across digital space.  My good friend Wendi Grantham has provided the correct text from A Testament of H ope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Are we seeking power for power’s sake? Or are we seeking to make the world and our nation better places to live. If we seek the latter, violence can never provide the answer. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Yep.  What he said is exactly how I’m feeling about all of this.