Dr. King reminded us that change is made by people who refuse to accept injustice as “normal.” This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re reflecting on what it means to keep moving toward justice, especially when the road feels hard. Here are a few quotes that inspire, and personal reflections from our team on courage, hope, and persistence.
Brenna
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” 1968
It reminds me that, while Trump and his racist thugs may try to erase people and cultures, may remove language about equal rights from federal websites, may replace MLK Day and Juneteenth with Trump’s birthday, may teach whitewashed history… they can never actually fully achieve their ends. Their impact is temporary. They are powerless over our minds and hearts. They cannot eliminate the people who oppose them, because the harder they try, the more we resist and find ways to celebrate the diversity that makes the beauty in this world. They cannot take away our freedom of thought. They cannot take away our joy in living or love for one another. They cannot make us stop working toward justice. They push so hard to control everyone BECAUSE they are so powerless – and they know it.
In the end, Trump is not unique. He is actually quite predictable, unremarkable, and boring. The world has seen his like time and again. Fascists keep trying – and keep using the same old playbook of disruption and division and hatred. But there are far more ways to overcome fascism than there are to implement it – an infinite combination of resistance and creativity and community and hope. Love and truth always overcome hatred in the end.
Tyrants like Trump are a dime a dozen. But the people who actually build the future, create possibility, and work for a world where all life is valued, and all people are free to live fully – those are the people who have the real power and whose impact will resonate long after the fascists are defeated.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and, for a time, they can seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Think of it – always.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Meredith
“If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “Keep Moving from This Mountain,” 1960
In this moment, I often feel paralyzed by the horror, so being reminded that even tiny moves in the right direction are worthwhile is important.
Kelly
A relevant lesson from MLK Jr., I think, is persistence and a refusal to accept “this is how things are.” That message shows up again and again in how he spoke about change. And with so many people feeling panicked right now, the steady insistence that we can build a better world, and that our work matters even when we don’t win today, is exactly the reminder we need.
Christal
“Today it has become almost a truism to call our time an “age of fear.” In these days of terrifying change, bitter international tension and chaotic social disruption, who has not experienced the paralysis of crippling fear?”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “The Mastery of Fear or Antidotes for Fear,” 1962
Lately, it feels like we’re living under a firehose of chaos: raids, threats, crackdowns, scapegoats, nonstop bait. It doesn’t feel random. It feels like a strategy to keep us scared, keep us fighting each other, and keep us too exhausted to organize. I don’t want my kids growing up thinking fear is normal.
So I’m choosing something stubborn: I’m not letting the chaos win.
Hope isn’t denial. Faith isn’t passivity. For me, they’re fuel. If I run only on anger, I burn out. But if I run on purpose, I can last. And what lasts is what changes things.
Community is the antidote to authoritarianism. Fascism thrives when people feel alone, when neighbors become suspects, and when “us” gets smaller and smaller. So, inspired by Dr. King, I’m choosing connection across difference. People who don’t match, don’t vote the same, don’t pray the same, still standing together for the basics: dignity, rights, safety, and freedom. I’m choosing nonviolent resistance with purpose. I’m choosing to meet a flood of chaos with a flood of connection, hope, and above all, love.
“So we must constantly build dykes of courage to ward off the flood of fear.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “The Mastery of Fear or Antidotes for Fear,” 1962
Take action
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