On Monday, January 20th, Dr. Gregory Youtz presented the following comments at the City of Tacoma’s Martin Luther King, Jr, celebration event titled “Building Bridges.” His statement perfectly encapsulates the values of CRPF, and now more than ever, we must continue to work to reconcile our communities. Please read his thoughts below:

MLK Quote:

“The journey toward reconciliation and unity may seem long and uncertain, but faith gives us the courage to take the first step. Even when we cannot see the full path ahead, our belief in justice and love empowers us to move forward with hope and conviction.”

Because I am representing the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation today, I have chosen to respond to this quote from Dr. King that contains the word reconciliation.

The word reconciliation is made up of the Latin root words re, meaning “again,” and conciliare, meaning “to make good again, to repair.”

The word is used to describe the act of repairing broken relationships, such as between former friends or warring factions. Both in the 1950s and 60s and today, one could be justified in asking whether there is anything to “repair” between oppressors and those they oppress, or whether in fact it is more like a ceasefire that is called for.

It was a supreme act of generosity on Dr. King’s part to utilize the word reconciliation, and to adopt Gandhi’s non-violent approach to confronting racism and demanding civil rights. Militancy had seemed, to many, to be at least as rational and justifiable a strategy, and indeed the conversation goes on today about whether his non-violence achieved “enough.” But the cities were already burning, as my childhood memories remind me, and to maintain his pacifism amid such turmoil and debate was nothing short of
saintly. I do not use the term casually or lightly; his actions and his choices remain challenges to us even today and his faith and his vision remain our guiding light.

The Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, of which I am the Vice President, was formed in the mid-1990s to consider how to reconcile the modern city and people of Tacoma with the dark, racist events of its past- initially focused on the expulsion of the Chinese in 1885. It was founded and named at the same time as the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission led by President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The latter’s concept of Ubuntu translates as “a spiritual awareness of our interconnectedness as a human family and the idea that together, we make one another human.”

While it might seem that “reconciliation” is an inappropriate word for our “dream” as King put it, nonetheless he insisted that it was not just equal rights that we needed, but the coming together of our society. It is as a human family that we must reconcile, must learn to see each other as family, and to understand and act upon our “interconnectedness”- with each other as humans, and now in this era of impending climate crisis, interconnectedness with all of our fellow species on this one planet earth we all call home.

Not a day goes by that I do not fantasize about militantly just snapping my fingers and changing the world and to heck with all these politics. But I also remember that August day in 1963 when I listened with my family on a black and white TV to the most mesmerizing human voice I had ever heard, speaking to a million people, about a Dream. And I remember in that moment feeling, as a kid, that by coming together, by reconciling, we could change the world.

In closing- there is a bridge in the Chinese Reconciliation Park. It represents the path we must take between learning about injustice and deciding to act upon that knowledge. It is a physical metaphor for what we must do if we choose to follow Dr. King’s vision and seek to reconcile- to see each other and treat each other as family.

-Dr. Gregory Youtz, Vice President of CRPF