{"id":7063,"date":"2025-05-02T06:15:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7063"},"modified":"2025-05-27T23:42:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T23:42:19","slug":"transforming-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=7063","title":{"rendered":"Transforming the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Marian Wright Edelman<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life\u2019s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life\u2019s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This passage is from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s sermon at New York City\u2019s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before his assassination. In his speech in Memphis the night before his murder, Dr. King repeated the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan who stopped and helped the desperate traveler who had been beaten, robbed, and left half dead as he journeyed along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The Good Samaritan is traditionally considered a model of charity for his willingness to treat a stranger as a neighbor and friend. Dr. King agreed that we are all called to follow his example and serve those around us who need help. But he reminded us that true compassion \u2014 true justice \u2014 also requires attacking the forces that leave others in need in the first place.<\/p>\n

If travelers are being assaulted on the Jericho Road, we should help bind their wounds, but also work to make the road a safe passageway. If our communities have neighbors in need, and we volunteer at shelters or donate to food pantries and think we\u2019ve done our part, we are only partially right. We have done\u00a0an<\/em>\u00a0important part. But we are not finished if we are not also fighting to prevent and eliminate the violence of joblessness, poor education, poverty, hunger and the inequalities and injustices that feed and accompany them and unjust systems that create them. With true structural change, there would be far less need for charity; without it, the very best charitable efforts will never be enough.<\/p>\n