We Shall Overcome
Today in church we honored Martin Luther King by looking beyond him to others in the movement, including the Reverend James Reeb.
Someone wrote in the Joys and Concerns book (I paraphrase) “that my 7 year old may never fully understand the magnitude of what will happen on Tuesday is how we measure how much has changed.”
This is a moment in time worth savoring, especially for those of us that believed it would not come in our lifetime.
As you savor it, consider that there are many verses to “We Shall Overcome. “ They include “We shall walk as one”, “We shall all be free”, and “We shall live in peace.”
In the Bush years, I turned my TV off. The implications of giving up our rights for a false sense of safety, for seeing failure at every level of government oversight, for seeing the government fail to guard the life of every serviceman and Iraqi,for seeing the reins of our government treated frivolously – these things twisted my stomach in a way that I could only turn away from.
Today, freedom, unity, and peace, especially worldwide seem impossible goals - but the I believed Tuesday would not come. If Barrack Obama will be president, what else is possible if we work together? If we are willing to risk working against the status quo, even when the risks are very real.
Remember the other verses, remember the other dreams. This must be only the beginning.We have the new battles with health care and the economy, but let us not lose sight of the old battles: peace, liberty and justice for all.