Words That Hurt
Hurtful words uttered from one whom I’d come to respect and hold in high regard, catapulted me into a state of sadness yesterday. As fate would have it though, minutes later, an e-mail from my colleague, Ted Taylor, Director of Pastoral Care at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, brought me comfort:
“As we hit this last week of the month (hard to believe) I wanted to pay attention to this being Black History Month. As a man of Northern European descent, I am considering my own complicity in ongoing racism in our community. I have become increasingly aware of the many unspoken advantages that are part of my daily experience, benefits that are not part of my darker skinned brothers’ and sisters’ lives. I hope this week to remind myself of our shared humanity, our progress towards greater civil rights, and the work toward full inclusion still left undone.”
”I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream—a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
”Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.”— 1 Peter 3:8
May we remind ourselves today and the rest of this week, of our shared humanity with all whom we encounter along our paths.
Enjoy your day!