Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Cambodia

As background preparation for my talk at the 25th Annual MLK Symposium this upcoming 13 January 2011 at the University of Michigan Museum of Art auditorium (US), I came across this interesting write-up of the organizers which I find apropos to share with you in light of the fact that every 3rd Monday in January the world joins the Americans in celebrating the life of the visionary Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I entitled my talk to be “Reconciling Peace with Justice: Legacy of MLK, Jr. in Cambodia”.

Theary Seng at Oddor Meanchey Justice & Reconciliation public forum, 2008.

- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh

On May 25, 1787, twelve of the thirteen colonies sent representatives to Philadelphia to participate in what is now known as the Constitutional Convention. The 55 delegates who represented “We the People” of the United States in 1787 had a dream to “form a more perfect union.” However, the conveners were not representative of the American populace in 1787. As one historian noted, it was a “convention of the well-bred, the well-fed, the well-read, and the well-wed.”

Today, the Constitutional provisions for We the People include not only “the well-bred, the well-fed, the well read and the well-wed,” but also the poor, hungry, undereducated and isolated. We the People are not only males of European descent, but also indigenous people, females, and descendants from five other continents. We the People are also Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists and other faiths.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream was that our nation would “live out the true meaning of its creed” in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” And he also knew that the path toward that dream of equality and justice would not be easy. In “Where Do We Go From Here?” he argued that the task must be undertaken with “divine dissatisfaction.” He states:

• Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.
• Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice.
• Let us be dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security.
• Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family is living in a decent sanitary home.
• Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality, integrated education.
• Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.
• Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character and not on the basis of the color of their skin.
• Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol houses a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy and who will walk humbly with his God.
• Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
• Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.
• Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth.
• Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout “White Power!” – when nobody will shout “Black Power!” – but everybody will talk about God’s power and human power.”