By John Brinsley, Aikido Daiwa
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The above phrase originates from a 
sermon by American transcendentalist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker (1810-1860) and was made popular by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parker, a fierce abolitionist, saw the end of slavery as inevitable, based on his faith in “a continual and progressive triumph of the right.”* He conceded that it might be hard to ascertain merely from personal experience when and how justice would prevail. Yet instinctually he knew it to be true and saw it as his duty to fight for abolition. Along with organizing resistance to fugitive slave laws, Parker also advocated for other mid-19th century reform movements, including women’s rights and income equality.
Similarly, King viewed the civil rights struggle as ultimately being successful despite the obvious and sometimes crushing presence of evil and despair in the world. He preached that truth could not be suppressed forever; there was something in the human condition Continue reading “Aikido and the Arc of the Moral Universe”