From the Abolition Movement to the Civil Rights Movement; from the Haitian Revolution to the Egyptian; from French to American Independence; from Spartacus to Frederick Douglas; from Sojourner Truth to Julia Ward Howe, to Harriet Tubman, to Susan B. Anthony, to Helen Keller, to Rosa Parks, to Coretta Scott King—and, to Martin. Yes, to Martin. Human history is marked by countless scars from the deep abyss of senseless cruelty. Yet history’s tangled path is aglow with the towering pinnacles of heroic women and men who have led the masses up steep walls to Freedom!

Upward climbed the people: from oppression and cruelty; from forced labor and servitude; from utterly manufactured and assigned low status—up to where we all belong—to brotherhood and to sisterhood. And all that the people needed to do the climbing was their own Will. And all that the people needed to find that Will was to look inside their own hearts and their own souls. And when they found it, they rose. Throughout our brief history on Earth, hatred, power and bigotry have always descended. And unity, community and Love—they continue to rise.

The Bentari Project is proud to shine our adoring light on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His heroes were Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jesus of Nazareth. By following them, he led us.

King said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

And we said, “We care!”

King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

And we said, “We love!”

King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

And we said, “We speak out!”

King said, “No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied ’til justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”[1]

And we said, “We are marching—justly and righteously, like a mighty stream.”

Uhuru!


Photo: Oneonta—a mighty stream in Oregon, to symbolize the beauty that steep walls should represent. No law should ever oppress and, thereby, create ugly walls that people will eventually and heroically topple despite oppression.

[1] For more Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., see:  http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr.html