Yesterday, on Martin Luther King Day, I listened to our MLK bonus episode for the first time. I had not listened to it before we put it out in public, and since I didn’t record the episode I had no idea what I would be hearing.
The episode is not perfect. As Abram says in the introduction, he was trying something new (as we have been doing ever since). The sound is far from pristine. Abram’s friend, Cedric Jean-Louis, was reading Dr. King’s words clearly but the tenor of his voice does not evoke the man. And yet, I am proud that we put this episode out and that Abram was daring enough to put it together. I told him all of this as we spoke about it on the phone tonight.
The power of the episode is in the words. Abram’s words weave together a powerful narrative of little-known acts of resistance during the Civil Rights Movement, and the passages of Dr. King’s read by Cedric are powerful and relevant.
These words, found near the end of the episode, struck me as particularly relevant to our work:
If you are doing right to avoid pain and to achieve happiness and pleasure then you aren’t doing right. Ultimately you must do right because it’s right to do right. You must love ultimately because it’s lovely to love. You must be just because it’s right to be just. You must be honest because it’s right to be honest.
We do right because we are called to it. We do not know if our actions will have the impact we desire, but we know that there is no other way to live. And we do right because we have the model of Dr. King to follow.
I hope you give the episode a listen. The words above are just small taste of what you’ll find in the episode. Dr. King’s words and model are never more helpful or relevant than they are today.