Hoop in turbulente tijden

Noem het toeval of niet. Maar gisteravond mocht ik een inleiding geven op de Martin Luther Kinglezing van Willie James Jennings met de toepasselijke titel “Finding Hope in Turbulent Times”. Martin Luther King leerde ons dat hoop een werkwoord is. Daar moeten we naar handelen. Samen zorgen we dat hoop doet leven. Lees hieronder mijn hele bijdrage.

Good evening everyone, and thank you so much for inviting me to say a few words… on this special occasion, ahead of the lecture by the esteemed theologian Willie James Jennings…

“We’ve got a long, long way to go…” Sixty years ago, church leader and civil rights activist Martin Luther King Junior, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Vrije Universiteit, a year after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, and three years before he was assassinated. Martin Luther King devoted his life to justice. He showed us how peaceful protest can lead to lasting change. And perhaps most importantly, he brought hope to millions of people in his own country, and far beyond.

In the Netherlands, we have a saying: ‘hoop doet leven’, which means as much as: hope keeps our fire burning. What drives me every day, is the hope that together, we can bring real change. By sharing wealth and opportunities more fairly. And providing real solutions to the challenges of these times. For ourselves, and for our children. Because they deserve a better future. A healthy and safe future. Equal opportunities. And a real chance of living a good life…

My hope, many of you will not be surprised, flared up this morning, when I heard the news that the Dutch cabinet had fallen. A cabinet, led by a right extremist, that stumbled from one crisis to another, not taking any responsibility, using scapegoat politics to obscure their lack of interest in solving the real problems we face. I hope the ungraceful exit of this cabinet will mark the beginning of a new era. And era of optimism. An era of trust and togetherness. We have to wait and see, but… ‘hoop doet leven’.

“Without hope”, writes the famous English biologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, “everything is lost. It is a crucial survival trait that has sustained our species since the Stone Age.” But how do you keep hope alive in troubled times like these? That is far from easy. Endless war in Ukraine, genocidal violence in Gaza, climate change, the rise of authoritarian leaders, and civil rights under severe pressure, just as they were in Martin Luther King’s time. In Amsterdam, just like in other places in the world, all this brings uncertainty and anxiety for many.

But people are also just struggling to keep their own lives on track. As deputy mayor, responsible for youth, education, and poverty reduction, I still see a lot of people who can’t make ends meet, or are slowly drowning in debt. I see people who can’t find suitable housing, children and their parents stuck in a broken youth care system, people discriminated against by their own government, and being pushed into corners they cannot escape from.

So how do you hold on to hope in times like these? I would say: we follow doctor Martin Luther Kings lead. He taught us that hope… is a verb. It has nothing to do with sitting quietly in a corner, waiting for something to change, hoping for the best. Like, to his great dismay, many of his compatriots did. King came to what he called “the regrettable conclusion that the […] great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom was not the […] Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice”. Fast forward to today, and it is striking to me how true these words still sound…

But, ladies and gentlemen, whether we like it or not, this is a time of tension. And it still is a time of injustice. So there is no place for complacency. As leaders, but also as reasonable people who want a better future for our children, we have a moral duty. To peacefully resist authoritarianism, ignorance and bigotry. To promote freedom and justice for all. To hope, and to act.

Martin Luther King knew this. And before him, that other church father, Augustine knew this. He listened to people complaining about ‘bad times’ and ‘difficult times’. To which he replied: “You can place evil, and bad or difficult things, outside yourself. That’s the easy way. Evil is out there, not in me. The same goes for the times we live in: are they happening outside of us?” What he meant was: we are the times we live in. We cannot look away. Cannot walk around it. Instead, we have to be carriers of hope, and we have to lead by example… Because, as Jane Goodall pointed out, “hope is contagious. Your actions inspire others […]. And the cumulative effect of thousands of ethical actions can help save and improve our world for future generations."

It is something we should all take to heart. We have to carry the torch of hope, and to make a difference where we can. Not choosing the absence of tension over the presence of justice.

“We’ve got a long, long way to go…” Martin Luther Kings words ring just as true today as they did 60 years ago. We’ve come a long way, we’re sometimes forced to take exhausting detours, and we still have some distance to go. But with hope, courage and determination from all of us, we will, eventually, reach our goal. A free, democratic society. A just society. A society with equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone. Thank you.