“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
Coretta Scott King
With existence there comes a certainty of responsibility that is not always heeded, understood, engaged in, or embraced. The responsibility to self, and the responsibility to others allows us to congregate into communities in a generally orderly fashion. If you add hope, compassion, justice, equality, and inclusiveness to that equation you get the blueprint for a utopian Beloved Community.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a learned and wise man who’s time on this earth was too short, had the inspiration to put in the hard good work, and to dream the visionary dream needed to set the cornerstone in place for the foundation for such a beloved community.
From the 2017 Huffington Post article written by Jeff Ritterman, MD, Contributor Vice President of the Board of Directors, San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility:
“As explained by The King Center, the memorial institution founded by Coretta Scott King to further the goals of Martin Luther King:
Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.
How is King’s Beloved Community a prescription for a healthy society?
Fundamental to the concept of the Beloved Community is inclusiveness, both economic and social. The notion that all can share in earth’s bounty describes a society in which the social product is shared far more equally than it is in today’s world. The Beloved Community also describes a society in which all are embraced and none discriminated against.”