who belongs?

today, i’m wondering about how to expand our (america’s) understanding of who belongs.

i’m getting ready to write a blog post for mlk jr day and the focus will be his letter from a birmingham jail. this letter means a lot to me because of .

“I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.“ - Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 16 april 1963

the connection between this analogy and john a. powell’s ideas about belonging seems particularly critical to me right now. as i think about donald trump’s bid for the presidency, i wonder how to encourage people against (and for) him to see each other. he is incredible at finding a single or group of people to victimize. how can belonging counter that? how can our shared identities help bind us even as we are different?