August 18, 2017
"I am convinced that if are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This past weekend, we witnessed acts of domestic hate-based terrorism in Charlottesville, VA. We saw who was there: white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, the KKK, white nationalists, fascists, and the Alt-Right. We saw what they did, dressed for battle and carrying deadly weapons. Heather Heyer lost her life, but we stand to lose more because these acts of hate-based violence will not go away, even if we knock down all of the Confederate statues.
This is not about monuments.
They gathered to unify their hate-fueled desire to exclude people different from them, to protect a shrinking world of white supremacy. Are we surprised that violence happened, that death happened? What we saw on display in Charlottesville has been seething under the surface for years, but we were not paying enough attention. Our choices, at times, to sit back instead of standing up helped fuel this fire of hate. This will not change until all of us change.
At the MLK Institute for Nonviolence, we are committed to educating youth and communities in the power of nonviolent alternatives, challenging the pervasiveness of racism, and teaching skills and tools for activism. Let's work together to bring Dr. Martin Luther King's vision into reality.
Rev. Doris K. Dalton, Executive Director