MLK Day

I didn't watch the Golden Globes last night but met some friends at the Brooklyn Heights Wine bar (which has an inspired menu that includes both mud pie and lobster roll among the more expected wine bar tapas). My friend Dennis from college is in town from...well, I'm not exactly sure where he lives at the moment outside of his car, as he has storage units in Chicago, Maryland and now New York...but is planning to move to New York, unless he goes to Haiti.

Dennis tends to pop into town, unexpectedly, though his randomness has some order to it. My rule is I never 'plan' on him, though tend to throw out an invite or two and every once in a while he shows up. I saw him a lot when I lived in San Francisco and he was working as a consultant in the Silicon Valley. When I lived in Southern California I never saw him there but the time zones did work well for us as he keeps vampire hours and we'd tend to chat when I was getting ready for bed. Most recently he's been working in DC in international development and has shown up in New York every few weeks. Dennis' potential involvement with Haiti would be with organizations involved in long term rebuilding from the ashes vs immediate triage work best handled by relief workers, military and doctors.

The question of how to help Haiti was also discussed yesterday morning at Grace Church, a beautiful church on the corner of my street that I've walked by every day for three months and haven't attended, until now. The focus of the service was a commemoration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Reverend opened the sermon saying he's been asked several times "How does God let something like this happen to Haiti?" He said (in addition to Pat Robertson's televised statements of cruelty were matched only by his ignorance) that before the earthquake, he's never been asked about Haiti, though of course it's a nation wrought with poverty and very deep social and humanitarian issues. The sermon became a message of how do WE let this happen, and our role in making society better, for all.

Included in the bulletin was an excerpt from Martin Luther King's letter from Birmingham jail. While of course have heard "I have a dream" many times, I've never read this, so have shared in honor of the day today.

"...You speak of your activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist...But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos as extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the ends of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"