The Courage to Build Bridges

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Alex, an advisor at JayRay, was invited as one of Tacoma’s community voices to reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words and their meaning today during the City’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. We were uplifted by Dr. King’s words and Alex’s thoughts. Read on for the full message.

Good afternoon, Tacoma. It is my honor to join you in celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His work gives us guidance in a world still reaching for unity. His words, his mission, his spirit — still calls to us, still inspires us, still demands more from us.

Dr. King once said, “Fear is a powerful force that can divide us, stoke hatred, and keep us from moving forward. But it is courage — bravery in the face of adversity — that allows us to face that fear, stand firm in our convictions, and work toward a more unified, just society.”

Fear is a force we’ve all felt. It lies to us — fear tells us that our differences are too deep, that our pain is too personal, and that our struggles are too separate. Fear tells us to stay in our corners. Fear tells us it’s better to hold on to what divides us than to embrace what could unite us.

But Dr. King saw fear for what it was: division. Division isolates us. Division limits us. Division keeps us strangers to one another. Division keeps us from reaching our full potential. Unless there is a bridge over fear. Dr. King gives us a bridge in this quote. Courage.

In moments when fear divides us, courage connects us. Courage is reaching out instead of retreating. Courage is standing firm when your legs shake. Courage gives us the spine to confront hard truths. Courage gives us the will to look injustice in the eye and challenge it. But be clear that courage is not the absence of fear — it’s what we do in spite of it.

So if fear is division and courage is our bridge, we then must be the builders. Building bridges is not easy work, but it is necessary. And it begins with each of us and lands with the person next to you.

Where in your life is there a bridge waiting to be built? Maybe it’s in your own neighborhood, where people feel unseen. Maybe it’s in your workplace, where differences are swept under the rug instead of celebrated. Maybe it’s in our own homes or at our own tables, where fear has taken too much space. We don’t have to look far to see where these bridges are needed.

Each of us holds a brick for that bridge and each of us has the power to lay it down in courage and compassion, even when the world is telling you not to.

Dr. King understood that bridges are built when we choose. When we choose hope over despair. When we choose action over apathy. And when we choose connection over silence. This is the choice between courage and fear.

So today, we ask each other to imagine the bridges we can build together so we can honor Dr. King not just in words but in deeds. Let us have the courage to be bridge builders over the division sowed by fear so we can meet one another in shared humanity. As this quote teaches: courage, not fear, moves us forward.

Enough division. Enough hate. Enough fear. Courage will have the final say. Thank you.