By Jake Fahey,

This week, as we honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement he stands behind, I ask myself, what would he say in response to recent events? To this past year 2020? To the next wave of reeling forces of white supremacy that have leapt into the light?

In MLK’s letter written in Birmingham jail, he asserts that “we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”

An enormous multi-racial movement led by people of color, Black Lives Matter and beyond, continuing in the footsteps of MLK, are helping us create a more liberated world, and the ugliness we see is the darkness rearing its ugly head against the blinding light.

Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, says that “activism is not just about what we do; it is also about who we are and how we show up in the world. It is about learning and expressing regard, compassion, and love—for ourselves and for our fellow human beings.”

Listening to the words of MLK and Resmaa have helped me find my place in the movement. Working with other members of the Abbey of Hope Leadership Circle, we have read Resmaa’s book and engaged in the understanding that “White-body supremacy doesn’t live just in our thinking brains. It lives and breathes in our bodies.” Through monthly meetings, daily individual practice, and reflection, we have taken a step on the journey of building anti-racist practice into our day-to-day lives, and into the fabric of our organization itself. And there is so much more to do to confront the oppressor within.

MLK reminds us that “the plant of freedom has grown only a bud and not yet a flower.” There is so much work to do. But the soul of this land is in our hands. I have a choice. I can work to shift the generations of trauma in my body moment by moment, and envision a new culture, a new world, devoid of white-body supremacy.

I believe in the power that MLK and so many others fighting for a just world believe in, “a creative force in this universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” And it will require each of us to take part.

Jake Fahey is an interfaith chaplain and organizer living in Portland, ME in traditional Abenaki/Wabanaki territory. He is chair of the Social Action Committee for the Abbey of Hope.

He has dedicated his life to the discovery of Truth inside and outside himself. He is humbled by his shortcomings, but continues to work to fulfill what Spirit has in store for him. He will fight for the collective liberation of all. He works in collaboration with the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, the Abbey of Hope, and the Racial Equity Institute.

Photograph of Bosque de Piedras - Polccoyo, Andes Mountains, Peru by Jake Fahey

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