Destine Together

HNS Release: Destine Together
January 19th 2026

//
My friends, in this solemn hour,
let us lift our struggle to the high ground
of dignity and discipline.
Let no righteous anger lose its way
in the blind alley of violence,
for the power we wield
is not the clenched fist of hatred,
but the steadfast courage of the soul.

Again and again we must rise,
higher than the blow that strikes us,
higher than the insult that would shame us,
until the brute force of the body
is met, and mastered,
by the quiet, unconquerable force of the spirit.

I say to you tonight,
I have seen men and women
come here through trials and tribulations,
fresh from narrow cells and wider sorrows,
marked by the storms of persecution
and the bitter winds of brutality.
Yet they stand before us not as victims,
but as veterans of creative suffering,
bearing wounds that testify
not to their defeat,
but to their undying faith
that unearned suffering can redeem a nation.

So go back,
back to the dusty roads of Mississippi,
back to the red clay of Alabama,
back to the fields of Georgia
and the streets of Louisiana,
back to the crowded blocks
of our Northern cities.
Go back not in despair,
but with the calm conviction
that history bends beneath the weight
of disciplined hope.

For our destinies, my brothers and my sisters,
are bound together in a single garment of tomorrow.
The chain that holds one in bondage
stains the freedom of all;
the door that opens for one
must open, wide and welcoming, for many.
And we, walking hand in hand,
will live to see the day
when this situation,
by the labor of our hearts and the mercy of our God,
can and will be changed.

//
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Means a lot.

Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream." Have a great MLK day.