“This is the great new problem of mankind: We have inherited a big house, a great World House, in which we have to live together — Black and White, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Muslim and Hindu — a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests, who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.” -Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Lecture, 1964
The world is more than enough for the World House
The world is not enough for the World House
The House is a battlefield.
A warzone.
The gun of prejudice lies on the table
spotlighted, without a speck of dust, for all to see.
The dust on the gun wiped off by those
who first used the gun, those who let others use the gun, those who turn a blind eye to the gun.
How did we ever create the gun? Why did the blood of the gun never stop someone?
Create the gun with loss of humanity. Shoot the gun with one belief—you are the only humanity.
The House is a minefield.
An optical illusion.
The gun of prejudice lies on the table
no lights, covered in dust, fingerprinted, for all to see.
The dust on the gun remains, stained by those
who first faced the gun, those who told others to not use the gun,
those who closed their eyes in fear when faced with the gun.
When did we allow the gun to strip others of humanity?
When race, religion, nationality, creed, color, style, personality, love,
differences in simply being—were ways to lose humanity.
Create the gun with loss of humanity. Shoot the gun with one belief—you are the only humanity.
The House is ruled by all.
We must stop the illusions.
We must stop the war.
For the gun of prejudice to become untouched,
humanity must reign free.
For the dust of the gun to settle,
our differences in simply being, become a thread to unity.
Our differences in simply being—become our humanity, rather than our loss of it.
The gun of prejudice lies on the table
dormant, untouched, gone but never forgotten, for all to remember
The gun of prejudice becomes dust,
converted into a reminder of what was
before the World House
A reminder of what is now
Our differences became our similarities
The House learned to lift each other,
To protect each other, to love each other
Most importantly, the World House learned
The gun of prejudice had no place in our new home.
The world is not enough for the World House
The world is more than enough for the World House.
The world is the World House.