Love Assignment due 2/14 and 2/19 post
As you share thoughts on Walker, think about the power of love to change difficult situations and how powerful a value it has been in Walker's life, Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, the three Civil Rights workers killed, even Ben Chaney. When we think about love it's more often than not the romantic love that gets the most airtime, especially as we approach Valentine's Day.
Love objectified
What object represents love for you? How would you define love? How do you think Alice Walker defines love? The Greeks gave the different types of love names, a few of them are: agape, eros and philia. Which one do you think is most important? Bring the object to class 2/14. If it's alive bring a photo of it.
Martin King on Love Essay
Martin King delivered a great sermon on agape. In face, I think he delivered a few. Your assignment is to find one of these sermons and have a conversation with King on his views on love. Use the time Tuesday, in the library to locate a speech that discusses this theme.
You can be creative in your response. It can be in the form of a skit we can perform, a letter, or an essay. The assignment should be minimally 1 page or 250 words. It will be due, Tuesday, February 19. Please also respond to a student essay by Wednesday, 2/20. We might do this in class, it depends how the Alice Walker reading is progressing.
Comment on the thesis, supporting evidence, tone, style, and state three things you like about the essay and what impressed you most about the position the author takes, irregardless of whether or not you agree.
IF YOU EVER HAVE TROUBLE POSTING AN ESSAY EMAIL IT TO ME AND I DON'T MIND POSTING IT FOR YOU.
Planning tools:
It helps to plan your essays. Here are two tools.
Planning Sheet
What is the topic of your paper?
Who is your audience?
What is your purpose?
What question do you want you essay to answer?
What will be your main writing strategy?
Outline:
Thesis
Major point 1
Evidence
Major point 2
Evidence
Evidence
and so on...
Conclusion
As you share thoughts on Walker, think about the power of love to change difficult situations and how powerful a value it has been in Walker's life, Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, the three Civil Rights workers killed, even Ben Chaney. When we think about love it's more often than not the romantic love that gets the most airtime, especially as we approach Valentine's Day.
Love objectified
What object represents love for you? How would you define love? How do you think Alice Walker defines love? The Greeks gave the different types of love names, a few of them are: agape, eros and philia. Which one do you think is most important? Bring the object to class 2/14. If it's alive bring a photo of it.
Martin King on Love Essay
Martin King delivered a great sermon on agape. In face, I think he delivered a few. Your assignment is to find one of these sermons and have a conversation with King on his views on love. Use the time Tuesday, in the library to locate a speech that discusses this theme.
You can be creative in your response. It can be in the form of a skit we can perform, a letter, or an essay. The assignment should be minimally 1 page or 250 words. It will be due, Tuesday, February 19. Please also respond to a student essay by Wednesday, 2/20. We might do this in class, it depends how the Alice Walker reading is progressing.
Comment on the thesis, supporting evidence, tone, style, and state three things you like about the essay and what impressed you most about the position the author takes, irregardless of whether or not you agree.
IF YOU EVER HAVE TROUBLE POSTING AN ESSAY EMAIL IT TO ME AND I DON'T MIND POSTING IT FOR YOU.
Planning tools:
It helps to plan your essays. Here are two tools.
Planning Sheet
What is the topic of your paper?
Who is your audience?
What is your purpose?
What question do you want you essay to answer?
What will be your main writing strategy?
Outline:
Thesis
Major point 1
Evidence
Major point 2
Evidence
Evidence
and so on...
Conclusion
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 10:51 AM
29 Comments:
Dung Le
9-10am
Feb. 12, 2008
Love Assignment:
Love
Dr. King, Alice Walker, Coretta Scott King, Ben Chaney and the three Civil Rights workers killed were all Civil Rights activist. They had many things in common, they all believed in the Civil Rights Movement. In doing so they were lead to a path similar to those with the same belief of equality. This path however wasn’t easy; it is long and filled with hatred, pain and suffering. Many tried to walk this path, but none was able to reach the end. Dr. King and the many activists of the Civil Rights Movement walked this path, though unsuccessful in reaching the end; they did successfully encouraged people to follow. The strong belief in equality opened this path for them, but love was what carried them so far.
Segregation and poverty was something that many black Americans experienced during the Civil Rights Movement. Pain and hardship was felt by those who spoke their mind, an individual who spoke loudly was Dr. King. Dr. King was a courageous person who wasn’t afraid to express what he believed in. Like everyone else, he too suffered from segregation, if not worse. The road that he was taking was rough; doubts and disbelief are always a step away. Many especially by his people loved him and it is because of this love that he was able to withstand so much pain. The love from his family and his people gave him the strength to continue on and disregard all his doubts. Coretta King, Dr. King’s wife had a lot of love for her husband. Her love is however different; it is a love that his people cannot give. If the people’s love gave him a reason to go on, then his wife’s love would give him the strength.
Alice Walker’s life is full of love, most of it, if not all is created by love. When Alice was born they knew she was something special. Though poor, her family worked hard so that she can get a good education, they did everything they could to maintain that. When that was not enough, the community would have charity events to ensure that her education was uninterrupted.
Even in college when she had a crisis, her friends were there to aid her. Her family’s and community’s love gave her an education and that education gave her a future.
Love played an important role in Ben Chaney’s life. The love that he had for his brother, James Chaney was strong. His brother’s death devastated him; it turned the bond that was once love into anger and hatred. Given time, this anger transformed into patience, self-reservation, and then justice.
Love has many forms; it is everywhere and in everyone. It is eternal and never ending. It is what makes us laugh and cry. Love is us.
Eva Hopkins
2/12/08
English 1A 9-10am
Love assignment:
In the book Alice Walker a Life, there are a lot of situations where she experienced love through out the book. For instance when she gets shot in the eye with a BB gun everyone in her family is there for her through it all and all the ups and downs that she has through out her life due to the accident. It basically taught Alice to never give up and keep doing what she wants to do regardless of what physical or emotional set backs she may occur.
Coretta Scott King received so much love from all over the world when she was in one of her hardest points in life, when her husband died a lot of people around the world showed her love and not only them but her family. Love for Coretta in her time of grieving also kept her going and encouraged her not to give up on fighting for minorities rights and her and her husbands beliefs.
In a sense Love is encouragement and something that makes a big impact in your life that pushes you to do whatever it is that you could possibly want to do even when your in your worst places in life.
Daniel Palmer
Feb 12, 2008
Eng 1A
Dear Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,
I admire your persistence to stay in bed but to get up and preach to the people even though you are sick. That alone shows you love for the people in your church. I shows love because you care enough even when you are sick to sacrifice needed sleep to share such a positive message about love.
I agree with sharing this message once a year because
I think it is important for people to be reminded to love others as they love them selves. Jesus gave the ultimate example of how to show love and love every person whether they are rude to you or if they show to you.
I agree that one must look in side ones self and learn to love your self to even begin loving others. If someone hates you for something awful in the past you must forgive your self so you may go to the other person and say I have forgiven my self for that act now can you find it in your self to forgive me.
I can see how if you find the good side of your enemies you can use that every time you think of how you hate that person and then see the good they do you have something to go by and find some way to love them.
Yah, why should people love their enemies and it is so that evil doesn�t spread and continue. Because it is true if I hit you then you bring all your friends in to the fight and they all fight me but then my friends defend me and the next thing we know two groups are fighting for years and years and eventually no one knows what they�re fight over and friendships that could have been made are no longer possible.
Thank you Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. for continuing the meaning of true love, now rest in peace.
Sincerely,
Daniel Palmer
Professor Wanda Sabir
Kenton Low, 1A
Love Assignment
14 – 19 February 2008
Hi, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.;
I do agree with you on amount of thing on like the civil rights movement because it was a big deal and a great thing that you punished for. I was amazed on how you got all the African Americans together and marched all the way to Washington D.C for the civil rights. I like on how you organized the whole crowed in a church and made speeches on the steps on Capitol Hill. It amazes me on how you put this thing together. The speeches that you spoke to the people help them very much and help them not fell like outcasts. It was gods that led you to this movement and help them to have rights not to be treated like dart.
Thank you the experience with you. I know what it fills like when being an African American because it is hard till this day. It is still hard because of the struggles of life and education, schools, work and other places.
I like the way each of you chose a variety of creative ways to address the topic.
Dung Le
9-10am
Feb. 16, 2008
Dear Dr. King
I write to you today to show you the appreciation that I have for you and the many occasions that you didn’t have to, but chose to spend with your people. Each and every speech that you gave was nostalgic, and meaningful, especially the one on November 17, 1957 in the Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama, entitled “Love Your Enemies”.
Though sick that day, you still came to see your people and deliver your speech. To me this shows that you’re a selfless person who thinks about others before yourself and me and many others really appreciate it.
In your speech you gave us three ways to love our enemies and three main reasons why we should do so. You stated that the prelude of loving your enemies is the analyzation of oneself. I agree with you on this, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning and that’s with yourself. Another way that you gave us was to discover the “element of good” within your enemies. Your faith is strong Dr. King, even among the most hated people; you believe there is good within them. Lastly you mention that when the opportunity of taking revenge on your enemies arouses you must not give into it. It is difficult to not give in to the seductive feeling of revenge and it is sad to say, but most men fall victim to it.
Agape, a type of love that needs nothing in return, a love for the god that is within everyone. This was the type of love that Jesus meant when he said, “love your enemies”. You told us why Jesus used the word love and not like. You really opened my mind of the many different types of love and taught me that I can love people while not liking what they do.
Not only did you give us ways to love our enemies, you also gave us reasons to do so. Your reasons to love our enemies are undoubtfully agreed upon. Responding hatred with hatred will only result in more hatred. If we are in a state of mind of hatred, the way we think is also affected. Last, but most important is that if we don’t understand our enemies we won’t be able to transform them, we won’t be able to redeem them.
You mention that agape wasn’t discovered by many, only certain individuals such as Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Napoleon. Well within your list you forgot to mention one more important person, that person is you, Dr. King. I believe that you have discovered agape and I’m thankful that you are sharing it with us.
One of your many believers,
Dung Le
Faraj Fayad
English 1A
9-10am
Love Assignment
Love keeps peace going on in our world.
Love plays an important part in our lives whether it is the connection between two people, a family, or a community, its is the meaning of caring for one another. Whether it is when one gives their life for many, or many give their life for one, love is the cause of giving everything you have for, it is the cause of sacrifice.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights movement leader who believed in an equal and peaceful nation. Like Mohandas karamachand Gandhi, Kwame Nkrumah, Reverend James Reeb, and many more, Dr. king was a fighter not only for freedom but for love. Each of these leaders played a part in their in time to spread love in their motherland.
Gandhi freed India from Great Britain in a peaceful way and gained their love, And so did Nkrumah, who came to the U.S. for education then went back to Ghana, what was once known as the Gold Coast during British rule, to help his country get out of oppression and make peace. Dr. King And Reverend James Reeb, two men of different color spent much time to get blacks and whites to join hand in hand and become brothers.
Alice Walker’s Parents show a great deal of love. When Alice was almost a year old her parents showed her off so much that she won the cutest baby contest. When Alice was eight she got shot with a BB gun bullet on her right eye and her parents paid 250 dollars for the repair. After years passed Alice’s big brother Bill cared about her so much that when he found out how much his sister’s eye was bothering her and made her feel
Different from others he took her to a hospital in the north to fix it again.
I’ve never been “in love” before so when I hear the word, I don’t think of it as being a connection between two people. I think of it as a connection between a whole population, between every race no matter what the color of our skin is.
William Wong
9:00-10:00am
Feb. 19,2008
Dear Dr. Martin Luther King,
I am writing this letter to thank you for coming and giving a speech at the Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama on November 17, 1957, even though you were sick. The speech entitled “Love Your Enemies” was a very powerful and moving speech.
In your speech you taught us about three ways to love your enemies. The most important type of love was agape. Agape is the kind of love that requires nothing in return, it is the love of God. In your speech you go on by using Jesus as an example, Jesus could love his enemies without liking what they do. So why can’t we do the same?
The first way to love your enemy was by analyzing yourself. The second was to finding
the “element of good” in your enemies. The third way is to not take revenge on your
enemies even when you have the chance.
In this speech also mention three reasons why to love thy enemy. The first reason is if
your respond to hatred with hatred you will get more in return. The second reason is if
you are in a state of mind of hatred your personality will be effect by it. the third reason is
if your do not understand your enemies you cannot change them.
After hearing this speech, I feel that my way has been changed. After this speech I
Understand a little better why you are such a great leader. With all the lives you have
effected and changed.
Sincerely,
William Wong
Ernest Williamson
2/19/08
Eng. 1A
Love speech
I SEE THE PROMISED LAND
As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?"-- I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the Promised Land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.
But I wouldn't stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.
But I wouldn't stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
But I wouldn't stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy." Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding--something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya: Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee--the cry is always the same--"We want to be free."
And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; its nonviolence or nonexistence.
That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that he's allowed me to be in Memphis.
I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.
And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live.
Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that.
Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, and going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: we know it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.
We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do. I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Isn’t going to let nobody turn me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the Tran physics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.
That couldn't stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing. "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take them off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in the jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.
Now we've got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And as just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.
We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."
And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he's been to jail for struggling; but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'm always happy to see a relevant ministry.
It's alright to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's
Eva Hopkins
2/19/08
English 1A – 9am- 10am
Martin Luther Kings Speech called “Loving Your Enemies” talks a lot about how one should love their enemy because Jesus said so. He claims that Jesus was very serious when he came up with this because we are all children of our “Father” in heaven. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." If we show love to our enemies everyone will be so much happier and the world would be filled with less hate and more love towards one another. Even if the person did do something bad to you or just doesn’t like you for who you are or what not they still deserve love. When you show love towards your enemies it makes them feel bad for whatever it is that they have done to you in the present or in the past.
Dear Dr. King,
I just recently read one your speeches entitled "Loving Your Enemies." I was really touched by your speech. I never looked at love in the context you put it in. I'm used to the love between two people; the physical and emtional attraction. "...hate distorts the personality of the hater." This part of your speech really appealed to me. Because like other people in this world I too have hated people. My vision was "distorted." It really makes me think about those people I've hated and makes me wonder about what would have happened if things weren't the way they were. If I never hated them; could I have had a friendship with these people? Could I have seen the "good?" What could I have done to them? It really makes me wonder.
I also enjoyed the section where you tell that story with your brother on the highway. And I love how you compared that to the speech. "That as all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, so many civilizations, having looked at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, and they decided to refuse to dim theirs." I love the way you put your words together. It just goes hand in hand. I love the analogy between love and the highway.
You put hatred in such an understanding way. "The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil." I never saw hatred in this context. Its so simple yet so understanding. People will fight each other til the other falls but until someone can stop fighting it will continue. I see now why you used non-violence as a form of protest; its the strongest way.
Thank you for everything you've accomplished.
Sincerely,
Aiko Nillo
The Power of Non-Violence
After reading the essay the power of non-violence by MLK J.R. some of the things he talked about were non-violence methods, winning the enemy friendship, and justice. He also talked about how it could be different at times but he had to love his enemy and resist from physical violence. He went into detail saying the power of non-violence wasn’t to humiliate the enemy because that could only lead to physical violence.
MLK J.R. use a lot of non-violence methods but he wanted to make sure that non-violent resistance wasn’t mistaken for a method of cowardice. If the people he was going against thought they were cowards then the people would have felt like they won the battle. Their methods was non aggressive but strongly aggressive spiritually. A method they used was fighting violence with love and being calm about the situation.
Next, MLK J.R. wanted to win the enemy friendship. He thought he could win the enemy friendship with love and words not violence. He thought it was more to it then race but it was between justice and injustice. He wanted people to love the people who hated and wanted to defeat them because love was the highest sense. He also talked about how he thought the center of their movement stood the philosophy of love and that’s how they could win their enemy friendship.
Last, MLK J.R. talked about some power in the universe that works for justice. He felt like they had to move on with love in their heart and not slow down. He thought they had to be discipline and there was a goal to reach. MLK J.R. stood up for the community and he shared his love for people who hated him.
To sum it up, some of the things I payed close attention to after reading the power of non-violence was his non-violence methods, how he won over his enemy friendship, and justice.
Marcus Lee 02/19/08 9-10AM
Dung le
9-10am
Feb. 19, 2008
Response to (Faraj Fayad)
Great writing! I really like the way you describe each person and how you add in a little background descriptions for each, especially the second paragraph where you talk about Dr. King, Mohandas karamachand Gandhi, Kwame Nkrumah, and Reverend James Reeb.
I read the speech and I kept thinking of times when I have been upset with people that did a bad thing to me. Why did I get upset? I came to the conclusion that it is easier to get upset and try to find revenge. Instead I should have used the energy to forgive and to look for positive things that a person has to offer.
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
February 19, 2008
Dear Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
The letter I’m about to write is to thank you, Mr. King, for the insightful speech title “Loving your Enemies” you gave on November 17, 1957.
In your speech you mention Eros, Philia, and Agape, which are the most common forms of love. Eros involves romanticism. Philia is a reciprocal type of love. Agape is in the soul of individuals and it is the most powerful from the other two. If we are strong in will to fight our enemies by using love, eventually, the word and the connotation of enemies is going to be something from the past. It has been almost fifty one years since your speech; for it has change the way many people fights the war to equality and freedom. It is a continuous struggle to conquer the peace every human being deserves. However, by using your philosophy of using the strongest weapon (love) to eliminate hate is going to prevail against the enemy.
Nonetheless, I hope each person gets the opportunity to read your speech in order for one and all to be in the same page to use love as a weapon to fight the adversary. The solution to win the combat against evil is in our own hands.
Even though, I consider Agape to be the hardest form of love to achieve because it takes time, tolerance, and forgiveness. I read the speech and I kept thinking of times when I have been upset with people that did a bad thing to me. Why did I get upset? I came to the conclusion that it is easier to get upset and try to find revenge. Instead I should have used the energy to forgive and to look for positive things that a person has to offer.
Again, I thank you for inspiring me and many others to use love towards the enemies.
Sincerely, Yolanda Gil
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1131
The Power of Non-Violence
Dear Dr. King,
I just read your speech "The Power of Non-Violence." This speech along with your speech "Loving You Enemies," really moved me. I love these speeches, because they are timeless. Your teachings on Love and Agape still need to be heard today. They are valuable not just to the Civil Rights movement, but to so many other aspects of life.
I am writing to you from the future, and America has come so far since you walked this earth. The Civil Rights movement is something we now learn about in History Class. We honor your birthday as a national holiday. However, as we've taken these huge strides forward, I fear the true meaning of your teachings has been forgotten. You often spoke of “Agape” love for all, “understanding, creative, redemptive good will for all men.” (The Power of Non-Violence)
Today Civil Rights are no longer on the forefront of the minds of Americans; instead everyone is worried about Terrorism, and the war in Iraq, along with the economy and gas prices. Now a lot of these things are out of the control of the American people, but the behavior of people these issues have brought out really frightens me. Starting with the initial response to our big Terrorist attack on 9-11, some people blamed all Muslims and Middle Easterners. Attacking Muslim men became almost a sport to a lot of angry anxious people. The sad, sad stories I heard over and over again in the days that followed 9-11 still stay etched in my mind. Then America decided to invade Iraq. I was just as angry about that decision as a lot of the “peace activists,” but the violent way some of these activists behaved also alarms me. In the days after we invaded Iraq, a number of “peace” demonstrations were held. During these demonstrations in San Francisco, the “peace activists” were extremely violent. There were random innocent people being beaten, for what reason, I’m still not sure. The same behavior was witnessed all over the country. I have never understood using violence to promote peace. Recently there was another violent scene in Berkeley, Ca because the town doesn’t want a military recruitment center next to their high school. I do understand the way the people of Berkeley feel; however I don’t think they will be heard if they use violence.
All these violent acts in the name of peace really confuse me. We need your words to be brought back to the ears of American people. We need to be told once again that violence isn’t the answer. We need to be reminded that we might hate the acts of people, or the decisions of our government, but we need to love the people making these decisions. All this hate is doing is creating a vicious cycle of hate. We need to pull together and love all our brothers and sisters. We need to remember “Agape.”
Thank you so much for your words Dr. King.
Sincerely,
Melissa Tinkelenberg
Michael Dacoron
Love
Throughout the world there are many ways to show love. In Sanskrit there are ninety-six words for love, in ancient Persian there are eighty: Greek has three and English has one. The Greeks have three different kinds of love which are eros, agape and philia. Eros, which comes from the Greek word meaning erotic. This shows the passionate side of love, with intense desire for someone sexually. Philia which is the most valuable type of love because it expresses love for other people, such as friends, family, and acquaintances. This kind of love values involvement and relationships in life such as your job, community , displays discipline in peoples lives and shows acts of kindness with the humbleness of attitude. Philia is a type of love and it can be expressed in a number of ways to show appreciation to the people you love. In Martin Luther Kings essay “The Power of Non-Violence” he talks about Agape which in a sense is like a brotherly love. He used this kind of love as a weapon of choice for his non-violent protesting, applied it to every individual equally and it helped get us freedom.
When using agape as a sort of weapon for non-violent protesting Dr. King seek to accomplish friendship for those who hated us. This was really smart for it really made the haters look very ignorant. While Dr. King established non-violent marches and boycotts the haters still insisted on threatening and hurting us. The haters where hurting us physically and emotionally. Dr, King did not stop at all, he kept on going whether the going was tough or not, and nothing was going to stop him and look at where we are now, we are no longer segregated. Lucky for most of us who grew up after segregation we got go to school and grow up with a lot of diversity especially out her in the bay area but we got to recognize who set it off for us. Dr. King helped us gain all this though perseverance and non stop loving.
The other love which I believe Dr. King showed too is Philia this kind of love values involvement and relationships in life such as your job, community , displays discipline in peoples lives and shows acts of kindness with the humbleness of attitude. His concerns about the community and why there was so much hate going on was one of the reason he need to show some love back to them to win them over. Philia is a very important type of love and it can be expressed in a number of ways to show appreciation to the people you love. Dr. King showed so much love and passion to his work that he didn’t stop at nothing to get what he wanted. The only thing that stopped him was a bullet but his dream and accomplishments are still here and alive. The movement is still alive although we still struggle with racism today it is not as bad as it was along time ago. We, as the people need to keep fighting to keep the movement alive, to keep Dr. Kings dream alive so we as the people can live together racist free once and for all!
One Love Michael James
Deon Johnson
English 1A 8-9am
February 19, 2008
Dear Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.,
I write this letter to you, not thinking about the response I won’t get back from you, but rather the thought of you reading this and quickly addressing it in the only way you know how, however that may be. As the man with a plan, and always knowing the right things to say, I think about what you would tell me, a young black man, that’s trying to spread the little love he has to his enemies, to make this world a better place; which I have my doubts can happen.
As I read over your speech, “Loving Your Enemies,” which was deliver on November 17, 1957 (Yolanda Gill). I wonder what mind frame were you in. You talk about the Eros, Philia, and the Agape, but I feel you left out the anger and patience or lack thereof, you now, the real emotions you carry or bring to life while trying to love thy enemy.
I have to say that, “thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy,”(1) doesn’t come to regulation as quickly as “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” I wonder Martin, have you ever heard of that quote? What do you feel about that quote? What response you will give for that one?
I think, or wish you were here to deliver “Loving Your Enemies,” for today’s generation; which is consider the “hypy generation,” the generation that “Go’s dumb and ride the yellow bus!” Some of the things you preached in this sermon isn’t possible or isn’t easily done than said, I wonder do you practice what you preached, all the time Martin? I don’t know what you were thinking, but there’s no way in hell I could “love [my] enemies, bless [the ones] that curse [me], do good to [those] that hate [me]….” (2).
Martin I love you and get hope and stay focus because of you, what you do and also what you stand for, but I pray that you send some direction this way, so the love that most don’t waste for their enemies, could so we too can have that “better world.”
I can go on and on, but I’ll leave you with what I wrote so far, please think about what said and write me back real soon, I’ll be waiting for your responses.
P.S. Read Yolanda Gill letter, I really love what she had to say, I’m sure you get a lot of inspiring letters, but hers is one to remember.
Sincerely, Deon Johnson
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9A.M.
Love assignment
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/571117.002_Loving_Your_Enemies.html
“Loving Your Enemies”
Martin Luther King’s sermon “Loving Your Enemies” is a very powerful and influential speech. He speaks of the words of Jesus and how Jesus believes we should always love the ones who hate us, which sounds like a very difficult task to follow, but Jesus was being very serious when he said, “But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you…” Martin Luther King also goes over reasons as to why and what ways we can love our enemies, and the three Greek meanings of love.
In his speech, Martin King gives reasons as to why we should love the ones who despise us. One reason he gave, relating to the center of Jesus’ thinking, was that “…hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe.” He’s saying that if one of us doesn’t have the sense to just stop and see the good in the other and love them, then the hatred will never come to an end, it will go on and on in a vicious circle of hate. Martin King also gave reasons as to how we can even go about loving our enemies in the first place. He believes that in order to love the ones who hate us, we first must take the time to analyze ourselves and who we are. This is because there may be something within us, something that we’ve done deep in the past that we’ve forgotten about that causes the unfortunate response of hate from the “enemy”. A second step to loving our enemies, as stated by MLK, is to not defeat our enemy when the opportunity arises. This opportunity will likely present itself numerous times, but we must refuse it for if we don’t it will only cause greater hate.
In Martin Luther King’s sermon he talks about the three Greek words for love and their meanings. One is “eros” which is an aesthetic love, a kind of romantic and beautiful love, typically between two individuals. The second type of love is “philia” which is more of a kind of affectionate love between close friends and people you’re friendly and comfortable with, a reciprocal love. And the third kind of love is “agape” which is the sort of love that is given continuously expecting nothing in return. It’s a powerful, overflowing, and sort of unconditional type of love. I agree with a lot of what Martin King had to say in his speech, “Loving Your Enemies” I agree that if we show no love towards the people filled with so much hate, that they will never change and our society will just be a never ending cycle of hatred. If more people were willing to do the unthinkable and love someone who despises them, then the world would most definitely be a lot more peaceful and a lot less violent.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A
I love the letter you wrote to Dr. King, Dung Le. It was very well written, and I am on the same page as you with everything you wrote. Good Job.
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
Response to Melissa Timkelenberg letter to Mr. King
Timkelenberg’s letter to Mr. King was well written. The tone of the letter is emotional, and it reflects the real environment in which we live. She mentions about the disregard for Civil Rights instead Americans are focus on terrorism and economy crisis. The letter is descriptive because it gives various examples such as the protest that had taken place and the way peace activist uses violence that distorts the main purpose of Martin Luther King viewpoint of using non-violence. The last paragraph of the letter, Melissa mentions “All these violent acts in the name of peace confuse me”. I definitely like the way she finishes her letter by restating the forgotten true meaning of peace.
Overall, the letter gives enough evidence to get to the point.
Great job Melissa
Faraj Fayad
9-10
english 1A
respon to faraj's essay...
I LOVED it.
response to Christina Thoss's essay.
you took the best parts of the speech and put em in in your essay. it was very nice and i enjoyed reading it.
oops i forgot to put my name Faraj Fayad.
“Love Your Enemies”
Joe Ganong
English 1a
Marin Luther King spoke upon a key ideal of his movement when he spoke about loving your enemies. He states that as Jesus preached that one could only slay the hart of a foe by making him your ally. More meaning full words could not fill such a short space, as this statement suggest humans have had many instances in which wars have lasted generations, killing of whole families and whipping whole cities of the planet never to be heard from again. War has proven that peace made through violence breeds hate and revolution. As human beings have hacked there way through the ages this single fact has stood solid and unwavering. Peace is only truly made with love. So to win against your foe, you must embrace him as a fellow human being and learn to place the hate of actions only on the actions not the person. Because there is good in every person, it may be simple but everyone has well in them to a certain degree. This alludes to the second truth that comes with these revelations; simply every one has badly in them as well as good. Which makes the point of some one being evil, rather they are acting upon the instincts that drive them, and with understanding and communication those feelings of hate can easily be translated into mutual understanding. King talks about an experience he had driving with his brother where drivers passing by at night in the opposite direction would not dim their lights. His brother angrily said he would not dim his lights for the next uncurious driver that didn’t dim their lights. King asks his brother if blinding the other driver would serve any good or just cause more harm. Rightly so the point made is a wonderfully simple allegory for international relations.
Conversing with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
By: Erica Marshall
English 1A T-Th 9-10
I have been given the high-leveled honor of (through imagination) interviewing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and have chosen the subject of conversation to reflect a sermon he delivered named ‘Love Your Enemies’. (Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957)
Erica: Good morning Dr. King, I’m delighted and humbled to be in your presence.
Dr. King: (with his cool, calm demeanor) Good morning, Erica. I’m happy to answer any questions you have.
Erica: I’m going to start off saying that, I, as do my readers, greatly admire your dedication and openness that brings us all together. What you are doing for this country is inspiring little boys and girls to know who they are and how empowering it is to fight for what is right in this world.
I’d also like to add that, although you have given many speeches relating to open love, one struck me in particular. I understand that you have to rephrase for everyone to comprehend your message, and I think you did a magnificent job in ‘Love Your Enemies’.
Could you tell me how the inspiration for this open way of thinking came to you? Who, or what is your muse?
Dr.King: "Ye have heard that it has been said, ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.’ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn’t playing. He realized that it’s hard to love your enemies. He realized that it’s difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard. But he wasn’t playing. And we cannot dismiss this passage as just another example of Oriental hyperbole, just a sort of exaggeration to get over the point. This is a basic philosophy of all that we hear coming from the lips of our Master. Because Jesus wasn’t playing; because he was serious. We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command."
Erica: There’s a paragraph in this sermon that focuses on the nit-picky things we can come up with to dislike each other. My question concerns future generations of people who didn’t grow up under or around Jim Crow. What do you say to those left ignorant oblivious, and completely sheltered to the way things were during Jim Crow; those who don’t understand the hostility they receive, and that will undoubtedly take generations to resolve?
Dr.King: …we must face the fact that an individual might dislike us because of something that we’ve done deep down in the past, some personality attribute that we possess, something that we’ve done deep down in the past and we’ve forgotten about it; but it was that something that aroused the hate response within the individual. That is why I say, begin with yourself. There might be something within you that arouses the tragic hate response in the other individual.
Erica: It is easy to tell us to love our enemies, but I have a hard time seeing myself, a creole girl loving anyone who’d rather see me burned in a pile of painfully innocent corpses than live in “their country”. How can I establish this love, with which I am not familiar?
Dr.King: …this is what Jesus means, I think, in this very passage when he says, "Love your enemy." And it’s significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. You refuse to do anything that will defeat an individual, because you have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you love the individual who does the evil deed, while hating the deed that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you can defeat your enemy, you must not do it.
Erica: The word love, much like hate has a lot of charge behind it. We have seen what hate gets us in this version of our dimension, but what about love? What do we need as a society to change it for the greater good?
Dr. King: That’s it. There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, "This isn’t the way."
Erica: There are many who want what you want in this world, but are more forceful with communicating their messages. What do have to say to those who are more militant in their approach to fighting for freedoms? Or to those who fight each other without means unknowingly for their freedom?
Dr. King: History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn’t the way. For the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than it solves. And I’ve said, in so many instances, that as the Negro, in particular, and colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succumb to the temptation of using violence in their struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Violence isn’t the way.
Erica: We’re getting to the end of our interview time, and I know you’re a very busy man, so I’d like to end this with one last question. What should we always remember, always keep with us at the back of our minds, to remind us of the strengths we carry with us, but rarely exploit?
Dr. King: There is a little tree planted on a little hill and on that tree hangs the most influential character that ever came in this world. But never feel that that tree is a meaningless drama that took place on the stages of history. Oh no, it is a telescope through which we look out into the long vista of eternity, and see the love of God breaking forth into time. It is an eternal reminder to a power-drunk generation that love is the only way. It is an eternal reminder to a generation depending on nuclear and atomic energy, a generation depending on physical violence, that love is the only creative, redemptive, transforming power in the universe.
Erica: Well, I’ve never given an interview before, but sir, you are the best. Thank you so much for your time and thoughts, they’re priceless and this moment will always be close to me. You are a genius and the world loves you back.
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