Dor de...Democratie! Cu Martin Luther King!!!

"I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

      Today, United States,celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, whose cultural interventions transformed our society and the way all of us live.
      In honor of Martin Luther King Jr's life, I'd like to invite you to embrace this paradox -

You and I are equal.
You and I are different.
You and I are the same.

      This combination moves mountains, shifts cultures, and makes heroes for the ages.

      You and I are equal. 

My dreams are as important as yours. Your pain is as vivid to you as mine is to me. My differences from you do not make me inferior. You may not understand me. You may not feel what I feel, but what I feel is just as important. Sounds easy, actually difficult. All human children have an instinct of "me first." It's a survival
instinct. But how do you mature out of that?

      You and I are different. 

"Equal but different" can be difficult to process. When we find people equal to ourselves, we tend to assume that they are the same. But they're not. That's the paradox. You and I are each individuals, with our own experience, our own needs, and our own freedoms.
Appreciate that I am different from you, and that the way I see the world is different from the way you see it.

      You and I are the same. 

Once you appreciate someone's difference and their equality to you, with what emotion, what energy do you act on that insight? Is it simply an intellectual observation? Or does it change the way you live? This is where Dr. King became a leader for all ages.
      He insisted not only on equality, but on brotherhood. In other words, there is an underlying passion and love for the other's being. It's not just about tolerating differences. It's about appreciating them, relishing them,
and protecting your brother's or sister's right to be who they are. Beneath the difference and equality, there is universal love.

       The experience that inspired Martin Luther King Jr. is alive and well today.
       I'd go as far as say that without Dr. King there would be no Strategic Intervention.
       The difference is that now what Dr. King showed us can be taught. It can be used on the cultural to shift a nation, or it can be used to shift the relationship between two people. This is something all of us can use. We may not be historical figures, but we can change lives.