Welcome to the World House

The following are excerpts from an address, “Run To The Mountain: A Call To Renaissance Men In A Post-King Era,” delivered by Dr. Walter Earl Fluker, Interim Director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection, at The Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel on JANUARY 24, 2008.

Where do we go from here in a post-King era? We must run to the Mountain! You have heard the story of the African savannah. Every morning the gazelle wakes up running because if it does not run it will become the breakfast of some pride of lions. And every morning the lion wakes up running because she knows that if she does not catch the gazelle her family will go hungry. Everybody in the savannah wakes up running!

We are confronted with what King called “the fierce urgency of now.”

Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not remain at flood-it ebbs. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words, "Too late."

I need not rehearse for you the long litany of statistics regarding African-American life. Suffice it to say, that from nearly angle of comparison with our racial and ethnic counterparts, we are far behind in the race.

As a people we are less interested in civic participation than at any point in our history. The fact that many Americans are more apt to vote for the next “American Idol” than in local and national elections speaks volumes about the issues at stake. I am so afraid that we can not place all our hopes and aspirations on Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton. We need to wake up running!

As our government is knee-deep in a costly war in Iraq, rattling sabers with Iran, feverishly negotiating a way out of a potential holocaust in Pakistan and North Korea, watching China and India out of the corner of one eye and agonizingly monitoring the ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine, the vision of the beloved community of Martin Luther King, Jr. is no longer the distant imaginings of a utopian dreamer, but may be the only viable option for peaceful co-existence on this planet. All around the nation and the world today citizens are asking whether this dream of a beloved community might have a chance.

Renaissance Men, as you run to the Mountain, you must interconnect with other world cultures. By interconnecting with other world cultures, you build social and cultural capital that enhances your potential to realize your vision. We cannot do it alone, we need others. Dr. King firmly believed that travel and exposure to other cultures has the power to enlighten and reduce stereotypes and prejudices. From 1957 until his assassination, King traveled over 6 million miles to deliver over 2, 500 speeches.

Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded this nation that we no longer live in a small house, but rather we have inherited a world house of interrelatedness and inter-dependability. He suggested in clear and strident language that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or die apart as fools.

Finally, Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us the courage of hope. The basis for the profound hope in King is found in the experience of inner transformation and in the crucible of struggle…

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