{"id":24,"date":"2005-01-17T11:55:18","date_gmt":"2005-01-16T23:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/?p=24"},"modified":"2010-09-28T08:11:13","modified_gmt":"2010-09-28T15:11:13","slug":"in-our-thirst-for-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"In Our Thirst for Freedom\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Today, we cel\u00ade\u00adbrate the life of Mar\u00adtin Luther King, Jr, a rare leader who mobi\u00adlized cat\u00adalyt\u00adic ener\u00adgies from the deep\u00adest spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal stra\u00adta of human dig\u00adni\u00adty; whose non-vio\u00adlence and whose vision, so clear\u00adly artic\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded in his \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d<\/a> speech define what is best about Amer\u00adi\u00adca by defin\u00ading what it could be.<\/p>\n

When I think of him, I also think of some\u00adthing writ\u00adten by Ian Frasi\u00ader, a reflec\u00adtion on this coun\u00adtry in his book, On the Rez<\/a>. His words are to me tes\u00adti\u00admo\u00adny for what Dr. King \u2014 and what all Amer\u00adi\u00adcans \u2014 might stand for:<\/p>\n

Amer\u00adi\u00adca is a leap of the imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion. From its begin\u00adning, peo\u00adple had only a per\u00adsis\u00adtent idea of what a good coun\u00adtry should be. The idea involved free\u00addom, equal\u00adi\u00adty, jus\u00adtice, and the pur\u00adsuit of hap\u00adpi\u00adness; nowa\u00addays most of us prob\u00ada\u00adbly could not describe it a lot more clear\u00adly than that. The truth is, it always has been a bit of a guess. No one has ever known for sure whether a coun\u00adtry based on such an idea is real\u00adly pos\u00adsi\u00adble, but again and again, we have leaped toward the idea and hoped.\u2026The idea does not tru\u00adly live unless it is expressed by an act; the coun\u00adtry does not live unless we make the leap from our tribe or focus group or gat\u00aded com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty or demo\u00adgraph\u00adic, and land on the shaky plat\u00adform of that idea of a good coun\u00adtry which all kinds of dif\u00adfer\u00adent peo\u00adple share.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, I learned through a sto\u00adry<\/a> in New York\u00ader Mag\u00ada\u00adzine by Sey\u00admour Hersh about addi\u00adtion\u00adal pos\u00adsi\u00adble mil\u00adi\u00adtary action in Iran. Why this coun\u00adtry\u2019s admin\u00adis\u00adtra\u00adtion appears to be devot\u00aded to such a destruc\u00adtive path I have no idea. Seems like we Amer\u00adi\u00adcans have all got to make a new, per\u00adhaps even big\u00adger leap to con\u00adsid\u00ader Amer\u00adi\u00adca\u2019s pos\u00adsi\u00adble place in the world \u2014 where our real and col\u00adlec\u00adtive lead\u00ader\u00adship edge is about learn\u00ading to be part of, not in charge of, about con\u00adnect\u00ading rather than defend\u00ading. And we have so much to learn. Is there any\u00adthing clear\u00ader than that our \u201cdefend\u00ading\u201d is just anoth\u00ader word for vio\u00adlence and aggres\u00adsion? More Shad\u00adow stuff. More Control.<\/p>\n

Today, I am hear\u00ading Dr. King\u2019s words res\u00adonate across a quick\u00adly shrink\u00ading world:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us not seek to sat\u00adis\u00adfy our thirst for free\u00addom by drink\u00ading from the cup of bit\u00adter\u00adness and hatred.\u201d <\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n

And I am hum\u00adbled. When you have a moment tonight, you might want to read or lis\u00adten to all of King\u2019s famous speech. It is a dec\u00adla\u00adra\u00adtion. It is a human vision, more vital today than ever, per\u00adhaps because it burns so bright\u00adly with hope in the midst of suffering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, we cel\u00ade\u00adbrate the life of Mar\u00adtin Luther King, Jr, a rare leader who mobi\u00adlized cat\u00adalyt\u00adic ener\u00adgies from the deep\u00adest spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal stra\u00adta of human dig\u00adni\u00adty; whose non-vio\u00ad\u00adlence and whose vision, so clear\u00adly artic\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded in his \u201cI Have A Dream\u201d speech define what is best about Amer\u00adi\u00adca by defin\u00ading what it could be. When I think of\u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading In Our Thirst for Freedom\u2026<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-martin-luther-king-jr","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unfoldingleadership.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}