Commentary: Martin Luther King Jr.’s three keys to save the world

If you opened the newspaper the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his Nobel Peace Prize lecture in 1964 you would read his three timeless keys for saving the world. As a UPI story on Dr. King's lecture stated, “the survival of the world depends on man's ability to eradicate racial injustice, poverty and war."

Dr. King dedicated his life to eliminating these scourges of mankind. It's up to us to follow his work to save our world, which is always under threat.

We simply cannot have racial injustice, hatred and division. All peoples must learn to live with one another, to realize we have more in common than we have separating us. We can be united in this world and, in fact, we need each other as Dr. King explained.

"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," Dr. King said in his Nobel lecture.

Dr. King made it clear that racial justice and unity must be achieved through peaceful means. “Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible."

This unity, Dr. King believed, was needed to eliminate the hunger and poverty that threatens every corner of the globe. "Like a monstrous octopus, it projects its nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world," Dr. King warned.

Hunger and poverty is everywhere. In parts of the world today the hunger and poverty is extreme. Sudan, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Yemen, Gaza, Somalia and others are at risk of famine because of war and climate change.

As Dr. King said in his Nobel lecture of the world's hungry and poor, "They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist."

But at the same time there is hunger and poverty, there is also much wealth. Dr. King emphasized that the wealthy nations make it a priority to help the poor. "The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation."

But if nations dedicate too much of their resources to military might and waging war, there is far less to help the hungry and poor.

Dr. King believed that eliminating war was the third key to saving the world. And in his time weapons were becoming so advanced there was no alternative. This of course still holds true today as weapons continue to advance.

"If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war. In a day when vehicles hurtle through outer space and guided ballistic missiles carve highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can claim victory in war,” said Dr. King.

Peace is the only alternative especially as weapons of war continue to develop. We must especially restart nuclear disarmament to prevent a catastrophic war and reduce the wasteful spending on these armaments.

Dr. King would want us to do everything possible to end wars, prevent arms races, and rededicate resources to feeding the hungry and ending poverty.

Martin Luther King Jr. continues to inspire us to do good for all peoples. That is why it’s important we listen to his words and be advocates for ending racial injustice, hunger, poverty and war.

Lambers is the author of The Road to Peace and partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Commentary: Martin Luther King Jr.’s three keys to save the world