Martin Luther King Jr. would be saddened and dismayed at the anger and hatred that abound in the country today, Iolan Georgia Masterson said.
Masterson, delivering the keynote address Monday at a ceremony honoring the slain civil rights leader, pulled no punches in speaking about issues dividing Americans, not all of which involve race.
“Discrimination, however loathsome, comes in many ugly forms,” Masterson said. “They say that love of money is the root of all evil, and I do believe it’s a factor, but I think the root goes deeper.
“Evil is rooted in anger, hatred and insecurity,” she continued. “Discrimination rises from a desire to believe that you are not at the bottom of the pile, that someone is beneath you, who’s not as good as you are and who is less deserving than you.”
She borrowed a quote from King: “How hard it is for people to live without someone to look down upon, really look down upon. It is not just that they feel cheated out of someone to hate. It is that they are compelled to look more closely into themselves and what they don’t like about themselves.”
MASTERSON took aim at those who belittle non-Christians, those who don’t identitify as sexually heterogeneous, at refugees, the impoverished, and people of color.
Masterson, one of the founders and a volunteer with Humanity House, an organization that assists people in need of financial help, pointed to the criticism from others in the community; “How do we know the people we help deserve to be helped?” she asked rhetorically. “Are we sure they haven’t been helped somewhere else? Heaven forbid anyone receive help from more than one source. They might get more than their share.”
So what would Doctor King do?
“Every time he spoke, he gave us direction,” Masterson noted. “He would tell us to choose our leaders wisely,” to find those “not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause.”
Those issues aren’t just at the national level, she continued, pointing to Kansas leaders refusing to expand Medicaid coverage. “There can be no other reason to refuse it other than to spite the federal government and the poor people of Kansas,” she said.
Locally, Masterson said the City of Iola’s utility policy is punitive to those who struggle financially, because the city will not institute a “promise to pay” provision.
Masterson said King would support public education, oppose censorship, and perhaps most importantly, urge others to speak up when they see injustice.
“‘The silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad,” Masterson quoted King. “‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
“‘There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.’
“This is a difficult one for me,” Masterson continued. “What I have to remember is that speaking up does not necessarily mean arguing. Just be sure to speak up and explain why you believe what you do, and leave it at that. “
KING WOULD urge Americans to truly see people.
“He said the poor in our countries have been shut off of our minds and driven from the mainstream of our societies because we have allowed them to become invisible,” Masterson said.
