History With No Meaning

I admire and envy the courageous actions of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I wish that one day I could embody the characteristics that King had as a leader.

I wish that more people today would base their lifestyles on his principles he shared with the world to live by.

These thoughts are not only on my mind because Dr. Martin Luther Kings birthday was this week.

These thoughts are on my mind because of a horrifying video a friend shared with me this week.

In this video seven teenagers were brutally beating a helpless 17-year-old Asian male.

These teenagers weren’t beating this man because they were driven to do so for any significant reason.

These teenagers were beating this young man because they had nothing else better to do!

As they inflicted bodily harm to this innocent man, they yelled out racial slurs such as “nigger”.

In the back of my mind as I watched this video, I thought to myself, “We are in the year of 2012, and this harsh racial discrimination still exist.

If Dr. King were alive today, he would probably shed tears and wonder if his courageous acts had done anything to improve interactions among different cultures in our day of living.

To be honest, I was furious after watching this video for the first time.

My immediate reaction was to come to blows with the teenagers in the video – to give them the same pain they gave the helpless boy.

Then, I had to think. King wouldn’t have done such a thing because it is these types of reactions that perpetuate the cycle of racial discrimination and violence.

This video touched my heart because at the age of 16 I filled the shoes of the helpless Asian boy. I know what it feels like to be out numbered and defeated.

I know what it feels like to want to ignore history and just want to fight back.

However, today is definitely a time when we have to encourage each other to fight to keep the meaning in history.

Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t do the things he did for no reason.

He did what he did for us to have a better lifestyle.

People need to learn that history deserves to have meaning in our society today.

Events such as the one that I wrote about in this column occur because people ignore the meaning that history has.

One for the week: Exodus 31:3: “And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.”