democracy

With the world's eyes on the conflict between Russia and Georgia during the past few days, I've heard from two friends who have a special connection to that region. Both of them have joined the chorus of voices appealing for a stronger role of the international community to stopping the fighting -- while the two nations have officially ceased hostilities at this time, there are strong allegations that some Russian forces are continuing to foment violence in the disputed regions.

One, my closest friend during childhood, had just returned last week from a week-long musical singing tour of Georgia, which concluded only a couple days before the fighting began. He shared with me a blog that addresses Georgia and issues of civil society and news stories.

My dear friend and brother Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Organizer and Research Associate at the Institute for Policy Studies, has written a saddening report on the state of African-American community and ultimately democracy in Post-King America. The report helps to situate the legacy of King in a concrete way within the prophetic tradition to call our nation into account.

Dr. Martin Luther King recognized that the next phase in the African American’s quest for civil rights and equality was one that would focus on the economic divide between the wealthiest Americans, the working class, and those in poverty. King’s analysis of economic inequality as the foundation of racial inequality remains as valid today as it was 40 years ago.

[Ed. Note: The following article will appear in the Spring 2008 issue of Fellowship magazine, and is offered here online in the context of this week's observance of the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968. Click here to subscribe to Fellowship.]

Sitting in our favorite coffeehouse, Tyler Jared, my eldest son, and I are having our “man time.” I am sipping a cappuccino and he is drinking some orange concoction. We stare into one another’s eyes, with an occasional “What?” breaking our silence. We are excited to see each other and saddened by the time we have spent apart. I hold a deep sense of calling that has taken me around the world, but away from him and his siblings. He has grown so much. He is now taller than me, his 13-year-old face starting to break out with pimples, voice cracking, but he is still my baby. I hold his hand and run my fingers through his golden locks. It embarrasses him, but he does not stop me, because I am Dad.

He interrupts the silence. “Dad, everyone knows you want to be like Martin Luther King.”

If you haven't yet, please sign this petition from AVAAZ to Stand with the Burmese Protesters. On Thursday, we will participate in the International Bloggers' Day for Burma. And on Saturday, the worldwide vigils will continue. Find one near you at the Budddhist Peace Fellowship web site.

The Buddhist Channel has eyewitness reports of ongoing atrocities as monks are being jailed, tortured, and killed!

The past several days have witnessed an extraordinary series of marches and vigils in Burma (Myanmar), led most recently by Buddhist monks, who are esteemed within the deeply religious country. The monks have organized to protest a series of recent economic changes being implemented by the powerful and authoritarian military government, but their efforts have much broader and provocative political ramifications.