Why we are all extremist in our own ways

Now, before you, all get worked up for calling you extremist let me share with you a section of Martin Luther King Jr letter to his fellow clergymen when he was incarcerated at Birmingham jail.

"..as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "... . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists"

This is one powerful and passionate text that made me question my inner being and the understanding of the word extremist. I have come to realize in many cases we used the word extremist in a narrow-minded way we rarely take time to actually ask ourselves if what exactly does it take to be an extremist. Don’t get me wrong there are extremist terrorist and am not trying to defend them in any way but so was Malcom X and Mahatma Gadhi. In other word being an extremist does not necessarily mean we are criminal. Some people are extremist fighting for love and others justice. We are all extremist in one way or another the difference is in which way, aren’t we?