It is essential to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his model and legacy of peaceful liberation from segregation. San Quentin State Prison is a place where as a society we segregate those who have been sentenced for breaking laws. Yet prisons are not a cure but a symptom of both individual and societal brokenness in need of transformation. When I drive to San Quentin, I often listen to CDs of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. Being a volunteer for over five years, I do this in hope of bringing his peaceful and creative spirit with me. But more than anything, his voice for justice helps me see with his eyes and seek out his spirit of resilience and reverence in the people and actions behind the bars of San Quentin. As I enter the prison, the sound of the iron gates slamming behind me reverberates through my spine. Martin Luther King Jr. felt the pain of injustice, but was optimistic that every person, situation and place can be transformed.
I find and feel Martin Luther King’s spirit on Thursdays at the Restorati+ve Justice Interfaith Roundtable, as men of different races and faiths sit in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and work together to find healing for themselves and those they have harmed. Martin Luther King modeled “Ahimsa” or do no harm and shame no one, no matter what they do to you. As a group we create kinship and community amongst insiders and outsiders, survivors and perpetrators. Our stories become our common language of healing. We hold and behold a small carved bird in the palm of our hands. It is our talking piece and we pass it around the circle, listening to each other’s personal stories with compassion.
Friday mornings, I see the nonviolent hero Martin Luther King in the leadership skills beaming from the men in “The Green Life” program. They, like Martin Luther King, are recognizing our interrelatedness and mutuality by becoming solutionaries for Environmental Justice and working to transform San Quentin into the first “green” prison in California. Sam Hearnes said, “When an aluminum can is recycled, it goes through a process; The Green Life program is our recycling process.” Kevin Tindall is motivated to learn about the earth because he wants his grand kids to see the same yellow butterflies he grew up seeing. Luke Padgett invites us all: “Let’s live with the earth, not just on it.”
I hear Martin Luther King’s spirituality of liberation in the silence of Centering Prayer on Mondays. The peaceful quietude resounds in the ear of my heart. Through silence, the men are learning that their spirits can be free even if they’re locked up. They take this peace with them to their cells, the yard and in dealing with others.
I get a taste of Martin Luther King’s respect for civil rights when I see administration, staff, correctional officers and the men of San Quentin treating each other with the dignity and humanity everyone deserves as basic civil rights.
These are but a few examples of what I sense as “Soul Force” behind bars. Even when there is an absence of good and lethal absence of hope, I’m inspired by the attitudes of the men who bring out the inherent goodness in each other. This is what Martin Luther King’s vision of kinship is about.
We have much to learn about creating what Martin Luther King Jr. called “Beloved Community” here in San Quentin. When the men and those who work here change the way they think, speak and act in their daily lives, they are not only changing themselves, it creates connections to the outside. This healing energy knows no segregation nor does it discriminate; it even passes through the granite walls and iron gates of the prison to the world. Michael Harris says, “We can become a beacon of light to others.” We do this when we learn to be like Dr. King and put into practice his dream of living in peace and harmony where our differences become our strengths in the ongoing struggle for an inclusive justice that restores ourselves.