Frasi di Martin Luther King

pagina 21

36 potenti parole di amore, uguaglianza e giustizia che ispirano il cambiamento

“Non si può essere
profondamente sensibili
in questo mondo senza essere molto spesso tristi.”

“L'odio paralizza la vita; l'amore la libera. L'odio confonde la vita; l'amore la armonizza. L'odio oscura la vita; l'amore la illumina.”

“L'oscurità non può scacciare l'oscurità: solo la luce può farlo. L'odio non può scacciare l'odio: solo l'amore può farlo.”

“facile diventare la preda di un bullo, bastano un paio di occhiali, oppure l’apparecchio ai denti, qualche chilo in più, o dichiararsi gay o lesbica. Dico sempre che nasciamo liberi e senza pregiudizi fino all'età della pubertà. Poi, per il resto della nostra vita, cerchiamo di curare le ferite che ci siamo procurati in quel periodo. (Conchita Wurst)”

“Un giorno la paura bussò alla porta. Il coraggio andò ad aprire e non trovò nessuno.”

“La tenebra non può scacciare la tenebra: solo la luce può farlo. L'odio non può scacciare l'odio: solo l'amore può farlo. L'odio moltiplica l'odio, la violenza moltiplica la violenza, la durezza moltiplica la durezza, in una spirale discendente di distruzione.”

“Ai nostri più accaniti oppositori noi diciamo: Noi faremo fronte alla vostra capacità di infliggere sofferenze con la nostra capacità di sopportare le sofferenze; andremo incontro alla vostra forza fisica con la nostra forza d'animo. Fateci quello che volete e noi continueremo ad amarvi. Noi non possiamo in buona coscienza, obbedire alle vostre leggi ingiuste, perché la non cooperazione col male è un obbligo morale non meno della cooperazione col bene. Metteteci in prigione e noi vi ameremo ancora. Lanciate bombe sulle nostre case e minacciate i nostri figli e noi vi ameremo ancora. Mandate i vostri incappucciati sicari nelle nostre case nella notte, batteteci e lasciateci mezzi morti e noi vi ameremo ancora. Ma siate sicuri che noi vi vinceremo con la nostra capacità di soffrire. Un giorno noi conquisteremo la libertà, ma non solo per noi stessi: faremo talmente appello al vostro cuore ed alla vostra coscienza che alla lunga conquisteremo voi e la nostra vittoria sarà una duplice vittoria. L'amore è il potere più duraturo che vi sia al mondo.”

“La mia libertà finisce dove comincia la vostra.”

“Ogni uomo deve decidere se camminerà nella luce dell'altruismo creativo o nel buio dell'egoismo distruttivo. Questa è la decisione. La più insistente ed urgente domanda della vita è: "Che cosa fate voi per gli altri?"”

“Una nazione che continua, un anno dopo l’altro, a spendere più denaro per la difesa militare che per i programmi di elevazione sociale, si avvicina alla morte dello spirito.”

“Potrò essere crocifisso, potrò anche morire, ma voglio che i miei fratelli dicano: "è morto perché io sia libero."”

“Cos'è invece l'anti-sionismo? È il negare al popolo ebraico quel diritto fondamentale che giustamente oggi riconosciamo ai popoli dell'Africa e che siamo pronti a concedere a tutte le altre Nazioni del mondo. Si tratta, amici miei, di discriminazione contro gli Ebrei, a causa della loro ebraicità. Si tratta cioè di antisemitismo. L'antisemita gode di ogni opportunità che gli consente di esprimere il suo pregiudizio. Al giorno d'oggi però, in Occidente, proclamare che si odiano gli ebrei è diventato molto impopolare. Di conseguenza, l'antisemita deve costantemente inventare nuove forme e nuove sedi per il suo veleno. Deve camuffarsi. E allora non dice più di odiare gli Ebrei, ma solo di "essere anti-Sionista".”

“E anche se dovrete affrontare le difficoltà di oggi e di domani, io ho ancora un sogno. È un sogno profondamente radicato nel sogno americano.
Io ho un sogno, che un giorno questa nazione si leverà e vivrà fino in fondo il senso delle sue convinzioni: "Noi riteniamo che sono per se stesse evidenti queste verità, che tutti gli uomini sono creati uguali".
Io ho un sogno, che un giorno sulle rosse colline della Georgia i figli di coloro che furono schiavi e i figli di coloro che possedettero schiavi potranno sedere insieme al tavolo della fratellanza.
Io ho un sogno, che un giorno perfino lo Stato del Mississippi, uno Stato che ribolle di ingiustizia, che ribolle di oppressione, si trasformerà in un'oasi di libertà e giustizia.
Io ho un sogno, che i miei quattro bambini vivranno un giorno in una nazione nella quale non saranno giudicati per il colore della loro pelle, ma per il loro carattere.”

“La chiesa […] non è la padrona o la serva dello stato, ma la coscienza dello stato.”

“La salvezza dell'uomo è nelle mani dei disadattati creativi.”

“Ignorare il male equivale ad esserne complici.”

“Un uomo chiamato a fare lo spazzino dovrebbe spazzare le strade così come Michelangelo dipingeva, o Beethoven componeva, o Leontyne Price cantava al Metropolitan Opera, o Shakespeare scriveva poesie. Egli dovrebbe spazzare le strade così bene al punto che tutti gli ospiti del cielo e della terra si fermerebbero per dire che qui ha vissuto un grande spazzino che faceva bene il suo lavoro.”

“Forse é stato un più tragico riconoscimento della realtà quando ho capito che la guerra faceva assai di più che devastare le speranze dei poveri in patria. La guerra mandava i loro figli e fratelli e mariti a combattere e a morire in una percentuale straordinariamente superiore alla loro consistenza proporzionale nella popolazione. Stavamo prendendo i giovani neri che la nostra società aveva mutilato, e li mandavamo a quindicimila chilometri di distanza, per garantire nel Sudest asiatico libertà a cui essi stessi non avevano accesso nel Sudovest della Georgia o a Harlem est. E così ci siamo trovati più volte di fronte alla crudele ironia di vedere sugli schermi televisivi ragazzi neri e bianchi che uccidono e muoiono insieme, per un paese incapace di farli sedere insieme nei banchi delle stesse scuole. E così li vediamo affiancati e solidali nella brutalità, mentre incendiano le capanne di un povero villaggio, ma ci rendiamo conto che a Chicago difficilmente potrebbero abitare nello stesso isolato. Io non potevo restare in silenzio di fronte a una così crudele manipolazione dei poveri.”

“Non aveva niente. Andava in giro a servire e fare del bene.”

“Devo confessare, amici miei, che la strada da percorrere non sarà sempre agevole.”

“[Rifiutando una pistola ricevuta in regalo] Sono un predicatore della non violenza. Non ho diritto di portarla. E poi, ciò che conta non è quanto si vive, ma come si vive.”

“Questo 4 di luglio è vostro, non mio.”

“Pace per Israele significa sicurezza, e dobbiamo con tutti i nostri mezzi proteggere il suo diritto a esistere. Israele è uno degli importanti avamposti della democrazia nel mondo, è un meraviglioso esempio di come una terra arida può essere trasformata in un'oasi di fratellanza e di democrazia. Pace per Israele significa sicurezza, e la sicurezza deve essere reale.”

“Se ritieni che il Popolo ebraico meriti di avere uno Stato indipendente, allora sei un sionista. È così facile. Sionismo non è una parolaccia. Si tratta di un credo che rafforza il diritto legittimo del popolo ebraico all'auto-determinazione. Non devi essere un Ebreo per essere un sionista, allo stesso modo non è necessario essere una donna per essere una femminista, o una persona di colore per credere nella parità di diritti dei Neri.”

“Per il progresso dell'umanità, non si può sfuggire a Gandhi. Egli visse, pensò ed operò ispirato dalla visione dell'umanità che evolve verso un mondo di pace e di armonia. Ignorandolo, lo facciamo a nostro rischio e pericolo.”

“Vecchio mio, non dimenticare stasera di cantare Il signore sia lodato, e soprattutto di cantarlo bene!”

“Nkrumah sapeva da sempre che il colonialismo era nato per il dominio e lo sfruttamento; che era stato inventato per tenere sotto un determinato gruppo e sfruttarlo, così da assicurare un vantaggio economico al gruppo dominante.”

“Nkrumah era partito da un inizio modesto: i suoi genitori non avevano istruzione, non erano capotribù, erano gente umile.”

“Finché considereremo le macchine e i computer, le motivazioni del profitto e i diritti di proprietà più importanti delle persone, i tre giganti del razzismo, del materialismo estremo e del militarismo non potranno mai essere sconfitti.”

“La discriminazione è una bestia che tormenta i neri in ogni singolo momento della vita per ricordare loro che la menzogna della loro inferiorità è accettata come una verità.”

“Cristo ci ha dato gli obiettivi, Mahatma Gandhi la tattica.”

“L'uomo forte tiene in una miscela vivente gli opposti fortemente marcati.”

“Cristo ha fornito lo spirito e la motivazione mentre Gandhi ha fornito il metodo.”

“Il coraggio affronta la paura e quindi la padroneggia”

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”

“One day somebody should remind us that, even though there may be political and ideological differences between us, the Vietnamese are our brothers, the Russians are our brothers, the Chinese are our brothers; and one day we've got to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

“An Individual has not started living fully until they can rise above the narrow confines of individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of humanity. Every person must decide at some point, whether they will walk in light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment: Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?”

“Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force … is the most potent instrument available in mankind's quest for peace and security.”

“If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: «He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword». We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries: «Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you». This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this movement will not stop, because God is with the movement. Go home with this glowing faith and this radiant assurance.”

“The real danger confronting civilization today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness—that's the atomic bomb that we've got to fear today. Problem is with the men. Within the heart and the souls of men. That is the real basis of our problem.”

“This man was a fool because he failed to realize his dependence on God… this man-centered foolishness is still alive today. In fact, it has gotten to the point today that some are even saying that God is dead.”

“We’ve been in the mountain of war. We’ve been in the mountain of violence. We’ve been in the mountain of hatred long enough. It is necessary to move on now, but only by moving out of this mountain can we move to the promised land of justice and brotherhood and the Kingdom of God. It all boils down to the fact that we must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.”

“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.”

“There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”

“Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

“If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation.”

“Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors, but against oppression.”

“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.”

“A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.”

“That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.”

“And there is another way to rise above self-centeredness and that is by having the proper inner attitude toward your position or toward your status in life or whatever it is. You conquer self-centeredness by coming to the point of seeing that you are where you are today because somebody helped you to get there. And so many people, you see, live a self-centered, egocentric life because they have the attitude that they are responsible for everything and for their position in life. For everything they do in life, they feel, somehow, that they are responsible and solely responsible for it.”

“Now, we can say to a certain extent that persons in this situation are persons who have really never grown up. They are still children, at a point. For you see, a child is inevitably, necessarily egocentric. He is a bundle of his own sensations, clamoring to be cared for. And, to be sure, he has his own social context. He belongs to his mother, but he cares for her only because he wants to be fed and protected. He does not care for his mother for her sake but he cares for his mother for his own sake. And so a child is inevitably egocentric, inevitably self-centered. And that is why Dr. Burnham says that during the first six or seven years of development, the ego is dominant within the child. And both in behavior and in attitudes, a child is a victim of self-centeredness. This is a part of the early development of a little child. When people become mature, they are to rise above this.”

“So far, only the judicial branch of the government has evinced this quality of leadership. If the executive and legislative branches of the government were as concerned about the protection of our citizenship rights as the federal courts have been, then the transition from a segregated to an integrated society would be infinitely smoother. But we so often look to Washington in vain for this concern. In the midst of the tragic breakdown of law and order, the executive branch of the government is all too silent and apathetic. In the midst of the desperate need for civil rights legislation, the legislative branch of the government is all too stagnant and hypocritical. This dearth of positive leadership from the federal government is not confined to one particular political party. Both political parties have betrayed the cause of justice. The Democrats have betrayed it by capitulating to the prejudices and undemocratic practices of the southern Dixiecrats. The Republicans have betrayed it by capitulating to the blatant hypocrisy of right wing, reactionary northerners. These men so often have a high blood pressure of words and an anemia of deeds.”

“Ghana has something to say to us. It says to us first, that the oppressor never voluntarily gives freedom to the oppressed. You have to work for it. … Freedom is never given to anybody. For the oppressor has you in domination because he plans to keep you there, and he never voluntarily gives it up. And that is where the strong resistance comes. Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.”

“We believe firmly in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. I can see no conflict between our devotion to Jesus Christ and our present action. In fact, I can see a necessary relationship. If one is truly devoted to the religion of Jesus he will seek to rid the earth of social evils. The gospel is social as well as personal.”

“Education does have a great role to play in this period of transition. But it is not either education or legislation; it is both education and legislation. It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless, and this is what we often so and we have to do in society through legislation. We must depend on religion and education to change bad internal attitudes, but we need legislation to control the external effects of those bad internal attitudes. And so there is a need for meaningful civil right legislation.”

“This is no day for the rabble-rouser, whether he be Negro or white.We must realize that we are grappling with the most weighty social problem of this nation, and in grappling with such a complex problem there is no place for misguided emotionalism. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. We must never become bitter. I know how we feel sometime. There is the danger that those of us who have been forced so long to stand amid the tragic midnight of oppression — those of us who have been trampled over, those of us who have been kicked about — there is the danger that we will become bitter. But if we will become bitter and indulge in hate campaigns, the new order which is emerging will be nothing but a duplication of the old order.”

“There is also the danger that our system can lead to tragic exploitation. We must come out of the mountain and be concerned about a more humane and just economic order. And I say, this afternoon, that we cannot solve this problem byturning to Communism. Communism is based on an ethical relativism and a metaphysical materialism that no Christian can accept. I do believe that in America we must use our vast resources of wealth to bridge the gulf between abject, deaden-ing poverty and superfluous, inordinate wealth. God has left enough space in this universe for all of his children to have the basic necessities of life.”

“It is interesting to notice that the extreme pessimist and the extreme optimist agree on at least one point. They both feel that we must sit down and do nothing in the area of race relations. The extreme optimist says do nothing because integration is inevitable. The extreme pessimist says do nothing because integration is impossible. But there is a third attitude that can be taken, namely the realistic position. The realist in this area seeks to combine the truths of two opposites, while avoiding the extremes of both, and so the realist would agree with the optimist that we have come a long, long way in grappling with this problem, but he would balance that by agreeing with the pessimist that we have a long, long way to go before the problem is solved in the United States. And it is this realistic position that I would like to use as a basis for our thinking together as we think of progress and as we think of the future of integration.”

“It seems to be a fact of life that human beings cannot continue to do wrong without eventually reaching out for some thin rationalization to clothe the obvious wrong in the beautiful garments of righteousness. The philosopher-psychologist William James used to talk a great deal about the stream of consciousness. He says that the very interesting and unique thing about human nature is that man had the capacity temporarily to block the stream of consciousness and place anything in it that he wants to, and so we often end up justifying the rightness of the wrong. This is exactly what happened during the days of slavery. Even the Bible and religion were misused to crystallize the patterns of the status quo. And so it was argued from pulpits across the nation that the Negro was inferior by nature, because of Noah’s curse upon the children of Ham. The apostle Paul’s dictum became a watchword: Servants, be obedient to your master. And then one brother had probably studied the logic of the great philosopher Aristotle. You know Aristotle did a great deal to bring into being what we know as formal logic, and he talked about the syllogism, which had a major premise and a minor premise and a conclusion. And so this brother could put his argument in the framework of an Aristotelian syllogism. He could say, All men are made in the image of God. This was the major premise; then came the minor premise: God, as everybody knows, is not a Negro. Therefore, the Negro is not a man. This was the type of reasoning that prevailed.”

“The whole nation has come a long, long way in extending the frontiers of civil rights. If we are true to the facts, we must admit this. Twenty-five years ago, a year hardly passed when numerous Negroes were not brutally lynched by some vicious mob in the South. Today lynchings have about ceased. Twenty-five years ago, most of the states in the South had what was known as a poll-tax. The poll-tax system was cleverly contrived to keep many, many Negroes from becoming registered voters. Today the poll-tax has been eliminated in all but four states. And just a few weeks ago, Congress unanimously passed a bill amending the Constitution calling for an end to the poll-tax in all federal elections.”

“If I stopped at this point, I would be merely stating a fact, and not telling the truth. You see, a fact is merely the absence of contradiction, but truth is the presence of coherence. Truth is the relatedness of facts. Now it is a fact that we’ve come a long, long way, but it isn’t the whole truth. In order to tell the truth, it would be necessary to add the other part, and I’m afraid that if I stopped at this point, I would leave you the victims of a dangerous optimism. If I stopped here, I would leave you the victims of an illusion wrapped in superficialities. So in order to tell the truth, it is necessary to move on and not only say that we’ve come a long, long way, but that we’ve a long, long way to go before the American dream is a reality, before this problem is solved.”

“All types of conniving methods are still being used to keep Negroes from becoming registered voters. Complex literacy tests are often given, with questions that a Ph. D. in any field or a person with a law degree from any great law university in the world could not answer to the even more difficult question of, how many bubbles do you find on a bar of soap? They tell me that occasionally they will ask that question in Mississippi and Alabama. And there are still millions of Negroes who are not registered to vote because of these methods being used.”