Let Us Be Practical And

Many White Americans Of Good Will Have Never Connected Bigotry With Economic Exploitation. They Have Deplored Prejudice But Tolerated Or Ignored Economic Injustice.

Human Progress Is Neither Automatic Nor Inevitable . . .

Just As Socrates Felt That It Was Necessary To Create A Tension In The Mind So That Individuals Could Rise From The Bondage Of Myths And Half-truths To The Unfettered Realm Of Creative Analysis And Objective Appraisal, So Must We See The Need For Nonviolent Gadflies To Create The Kind Of Tension In Society That Will Help Men Rise From The Dark Depths Of Prejudice And Racism To Majestic Heights Of Understanding And Brotherhood.

But We Are Gravely Mistaken To Think That Christianity Protects Us From The Pain And Agony Of Mortal Existence. Christianity Has Always Insisted That The Cross We Bear Precedes The Crown We Wear. To Be A Christian, One Must Take Up His Cross, With All Of Its Difficulties And Agonizing And Tragedy-packed Content, And Carry It Until That Very Cross Leaves Its Marks Upon Us And Redeems Us To That More Excellent Way Which Comes Only Through Suffering.

Normal Fear Protects Us; Abnormal Fear Paralyses Us. Normal Fear Motivates Us To Improve Our Individual And Collective Welfare; Abnormal Fear Constantly Poisons And Distorts Our Inner Lives. Our Problem Is Not To Be Rid Of Fear But, Rather To Harness And Master It.