Friend,
It’s not hard to see the danger ahead.
One man’s thirst for power has overwhelmed the rule of law. Politicians twist the truth to justify cruelty. Institutions fail the people they were meant to protect. MAGA forces try to drape their actions in patriotism while pushing us ever closer to authoritarian rule.
Martin Luther King Jr. understood this kind of danger. And more importantly, he showed us how to confront it – with discipline, love, and an unshakable moral center.
He taught that nonviolence isn’t weakness. It’s a form of strength. Not the kind that avoids conflict, but the kind that meets injustice head-on – with clarity, with purpose, and with a refusal to be broken. It doesn’t appease power. It holds it accountable.
He called nonviolent resistance “a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love.” And that courage is exactly what this moment demands.
But let’s be honest: it’s hard to hold on to that kind of courage right now.
When you hear Trump talk about using the Justice Department to go after his enemies… when you see extremists in power treating cruelty as a show of strength… when courts strip away basic rights – voting rights, reproductive rights, protections for immigrants and LGBTQ+ people – the instinct to respond with fury is real. The pain is real. The fear is real.
And still – King offers us another way.
Not a passive way. Not a way that denies the injustice or ignores the rage. But a way that refuses to meet hatred with hatred. A way that confronts oppression without becoming what it resists. A way that insists on moral discipline even when our hearts are breaking.
Because nonviolence is not about silence. It is not surrender. It is action – deep, disruptive, demanding action that forces the world to look at the cruelty and the harm and dares us to imagine what justice can still become.
Trump and his allies talk about retribution – but King reminds us that real leadership does not seek to punish; it seeks to heal. They inflame division – but King’s vision calls us to dignity, truth, and shared purpose. They speak the language of violence – but King shows us a deeper kind of power, rooted not in dominance, but in conscience.
This isn’t only a political crisis. It’s a moral one. And those in power are counting on our exhaustion. On our despair. On our silence.
So what do we do?
We reach deeper. We move forward with discipline. We act in defense of the future – not from hatred, but from love.
King showed us that justice is not inevitable. It’s made real through struggle, through sacrifice, and through love.
Nonviolence is not the absence of action. It’s the hardest kind of action we can take.
And it’s how we honor him. Not just today, but every day we choose to fight for something better.
In reflection and solidarity,
Svante Myrick
President
People For the American Way
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