“There Are People I Remember”—Legacy of Mentors on MLK Day

© Rev. Susan Karlson
January 16, 2011

A long train of non-violent mentors grace my life, leading back before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and after him. I feel their connection to one another in a seamless march of non-violent resistance. The cars on this train are coupled together—from the non-violent activism of Mahatma Gandhi to Unitarian minister John Haynes Holmes who was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union and Community Church in Manhattan. He was an ardent pacifist during World War II, a time when it was particularly courageous to be a pacifist. It was Holmes who brought Gandhi’s message to this country after meeting him in New Delhi in 1947.

King wrote in 1955, “Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics”. And the inspiring leaders go on and on—for Cesar Chavez drew inspiration from Gandhi and King, and Thich Nhat Hanh and Nelson Mandela did too. Marshall Rosenberg formed a method of compassionate, non-violent communication based on Gandhi and King’s message. This difficult practice of deep listening strengthens my marriage and my ministry every day.

I remember one period in my life when I was struggling—grappling with how a matter of conscience might impact my ministry and my life. I couldn’t sleep and so I went to my office and googled Letter From a Birmingham Jail. There I read King’s public letter to his colleagues who had urged him to slow down his demonstrations and marches. King laid it all out there powerfully and lucidly-- the time had come to act. I found strength and resolution in his words—he was speaking to me, as if the loud roar of my conscience and my God would not be silent. I knew what I had to do and I found peace in his words.

The spirit that called Dr. King to work for economic justice and peace is the same spirit that calls us to work on Staten Island today. We all are part of that long train of non-violent, compassionate people; resisting, speaking truth to power, bending the long “arc of the universe toward justice”.

Benediction Rev. Susan Karlson

May these reflections fire in our hearts
the commitment To build a new way—
To see the common threads
That weave us together,
To find the unity
that places integrity, common cause
And above all, love
On the loom of our hearts
That the design of our lives
Be One grand tapestry.
Peace, shalom, om shanthi, ashay, asalaam alaykum and blessed be.