July 4th Irony...

Last night I had the pleasure of watching fireworks at a sports park in Temecula with Amanda and her family. It was a great day... just enjoying good company, good games, and good food. And as always, when the fireworks came, I felt my usual tension of gratitude and frustration. Gratitude for family, friends and joyous celebration but frustration nonetheless for the reality of such a celebration--the celebration of military conquest and violent resistance. And my tension was especially heightened when from the loud speakers I heard the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. crying, "let freedom ring." The beauty of that voice calling those words was enveloped in the ironic truth that what King originally meant in those words was completely lost in that celebration. King's definition of "freedom" was indeed quite different from that of the Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War, and it was perhaps also quite different from that of most of the Americans who were oohing and awing at the fireworks in the sky last night. "Let freedom ring" was a call for resistance but not the same kind of resistance that involves canons, bullets, and bombs. King demanded nonviolent resistance. King displayed true freedom and was killed for his freedom though he refused to kill for it. That's the kind of freedom which comes through the king who died for his enemies, the kind which comes through Jesus Christ, the freedom to live freely even in the midst of oppression--free from the need for power over others and free from the will to dominate.

That's why I found it quite ironic when they played King's voice over the loud speaker during a celebration of violent reistance...

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." _Martin Luther King Jr.