“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Today we remember the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., and events last week show the need to reflect on his mission and ministry is as great as ever.

A group of teenagers from a school in Kentucky had come to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life, but instead found their way to groups participating in the Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial. Their intent, it seems, was to cause trouble.

First, they taunted a group of black teenagers who had been preaching about the Bible, nearby. Tensions between the two groups of young men began to escalate, so Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips intervened. He walked into the midst of the group, playing his drum and chanting a healing prayer. He found himself surrounded, and one young man blocked his escape.

Video of the incident spread like wildfire, and the look on the teenager’s face as he blocks Phillips is nauseating. His classmates surround him, cheering and egging him on as they continue to taunt Phillips.

It is worth noting many of the young men are wearing Make America Great Again hats. At least one is also wearing a Make America Great Again scarf. It is not the first time a group of white young people took up that particular article of clothing and wore it almost as part of their uniform during an act of hate.

Thinking people cannot fail to understand the message those particular groups hope to convey with the slogan.

It is a shame, truly.

And it makes Phillips’ actions, particularly on the eve of our observance of the birthday of the late civil rights leader even more important. He met that smug child (who, by the way, was given no reason to believe his actions were inappropriate or would yield consequences by the adults who were supposed to be chaperoning him and his classmates that day — where were they standing when all this happened?) with bravery and a calm prayer.

Without stooping to that level, without resorting to violence, we must fight as hard now as ever against the mindset that sad, sad little boy had clearly been led to believe was right and socially acceptable.

***

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. “

— The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.