The great Congressman John Lewis wrote in his brief memoir and meditation on social change, Across that Bridge (2012):
During the Civil Rights Movement, our struggle was not about politics. It was about seeing a philosophy made manifest in our society that recognized the inextricable connection we have to each other (7).
Politics, of course, was one of the forms that the Civil Rights struggle took. But the real struggle, and the inspiration behind most social-justice movements, concerns our attempt to recognize and honor what Congressman Lewis calls this "inextricable connection" that we have to one another.
Recognizing this connection, understanding its profound complexity, and finally realizing our place within this living network of value and vision—that has been the goal of our major wisdom traditions that have influenced the human community from century to century.
And so on Thursday, February 19, we will come together at 6:30 p.m. near the fountain between Mullins Library and the Arkansas Student Union to honor the inextricable connection that we share with Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha, the three UNC students who were tragically murdered on February 10th.
I urge you to attend this gathering if at all possible. Simply being there, implicitly recognizing the hatred and violence that we all must confront on a daily basis, marks a powerful first step toward finding workable responses to these problems.
Let me close my invitation with the American historian and social activist Howard Zinn. He provides the fundamental logic that lies behind the very human urge that we all feel—and sometimes tragically resist—to help others even in the smallest ways:
We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
So let's undertake a small act on Thursday, February 19, 2015. Let's get together and embody for our community that "inextricable connection" that we have to each other.
If we can do that, it will have been a good day.
And the world needs more good days, right?
A Facebook page has been set up for this event. You can find it here.
I hope to see you there.
—Sidney Burris, Professor, University of Arkansas