A photo of Martin Luther King III and Actor Kamal Haasan, taken in 2009, formed the backdrop on the stage for the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture, organised by the Indo-American Association Chennai and Women’s Christian College on Wednesday.
“War is a very outdated way to settle differences,” said Mr. Haasan, who delivered the memorial lecture. In 2009, Mr Martin Luther King III had visited the country to commemorate his parents’ historic journey to the country five decades before and the actor had then taken the stage to speak about Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream’ speech.
Incomplete minds
“While most reformers say that all men are equal, inequality is created by incomplete minds that somehow manage to reach the seat of power while the enlightened minds are always with the [poor and minority—called the wise,” he said, during the lecture.
Speaking about the United States, Mr. Haasan said that when Barack Obama took his oath as the first black president of the country, he had seen a black governor shedding tears which had prompted tears of empathy from him as well.
“The country had broken free of the shackles of slavery and made me proud, but that same country leaves me disappointed as they don’t believe yet that the concept of war is outdated,” he observed.
Stating that great men and women, who had lived and died, believed that the coming generation should better them, he urged everyone to question themselves — in the words of Martin Luther King Jr on ‘what they had done about it’.
‘We must unite’
“We will surprise ourselves with what we are able to discover within us,” he said. “His life and philosophy should be taken as a fulcrum and be used to uplift an entire generation. We should dare to dream and unite for the sake of humans instead of fighting,” Mr. Haasan stated to the audience, a majority of which were young students.
‘Work in progress’
Calling the human mind a 'work in progress', Mr Haasan said that there cannot be another wait for a million years for a cycle of evolution to take place and change the current scenario.
"While Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi were great men, it is time we produced more men and women like them and such will as they had should rise in all of you who have the tenacity of purpose," he said.