January 16, 2023

Congressman Al Green Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

(Houston, TX) — On Monday, January 16, 2023, Congressman Al Green released the following statement in observance of the 2023 King holiday theme, “It Starts with Me: Cultivating a Beloved Community Mindset to Transform Unjust Systems”:

“There are some who believe that if we leave the world alone, the world will leave us alone. I am not one of them. It is not enough to live and let live, we must live and help live. For a community to progress in unity, transform unjust systems, and metamorphose into a beloved community, it must not ignore the needs of its neighbors. A beloved community cannot be isolated. It cannot bear witness to, yet ignore, the needs of its neighbors. It cannot thrive in the shadows of its neighbors that are struggling to survive. A beloved community extends the hand of friendship to neighbors during their time of need. A beloved community is rooted in the righteous belief of but for the grace of God there go I. Communities need to understand each other’s differences, respect those differences, and speak up when hatred, the insidious enemy of the beloved community, is weaponized against those differences. Speaking up against weaponized hate in all of its invidious forms—including xenophobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism—is the collective responsibility of the beloved community. Only when each of us practices the live and help live philosophy can we transform unjust systems into a beloved community.”

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