Vincent Harding and the Veterans of Hope
This entry is in honor of the upcoming anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King. My dear friend Vincent Harding and his late wife Rosemarie Freeney-Harding were colleagues of Dr King and among the heirs of his great works on behalf of freedom and justice and a different kind of America. Some years ago, Vincent and Rosemarie founded The Veterans of Hope Project, gathering first the elder veterans of the civil rights movement and eventually adding veterans of various freedom movements. The mission they envisioned is “a multifaceted educational initiative on religion, culture, and participatory democracy. Its primary mission is to encourage a healing-centered approach to community building that recognizes the interconnectedness of spirit, creativity, and citizenship.” The latest of his many important writings “Is America Possible?” has the subtitle: “A Letter to My Young Companions on the Journey of Hope.” This says a lot to me. At this time of great pessimism, especially among the young, I find the work of the Hardings and their community to be uniquely inspiring, having had to work their ways out of the horrendous heritage of slavery, overcoming obstacles that I cannot even imagine to succeed in forging a fiery hope that we can indeed overcome the iron forces of oppression to continue creating an increasingly more just society.
This pamphlet funded by The Fetzer Foundation will eventually be published in their volume of writings under the title Essays on Deepening the American Dream.
Veterans of Hope Project
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
