The counterbalance to The Gated Communities of the extreme Right and the extreme Left is a society that reinforces the worth of every human being—regardless of race, religion or ideology. This is the aspiration that Dr. Martin Luther King called “The Beloved Community.”
Where the Gated Community rejects, the Beloved Community welcomes. In the Gated Community, there is room only for the powerful, but in the Beloved Community, even the weak have inherent worth. The Beloved Community seeks reconciliation with those who are different—not their destruction.
We know that a perfect Beloved Community will never exist here on earth, but that should never stop us from trying. After all, our country was not founded as a “perfect union,” but a “more perfect union.” The struggle for a more just America must be characterized by discipline, not tit-for-tat malice.
In “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King confidently declared that justice would prevail, “…because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”