“OUR SINGLE GARMENT OF DESTINY”

• 

• 

“Moreover, I am cognizant of the inter-relatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letters From A Birmingham Jail.” 1963

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The artists envision the sculpture as a dual metaphor: The sculpture, with its quantum wave-like structure, serves as a dual metaphor. It first suggests how a small group of diverse, yet unified, people can build movements for social justice, creating ripples that emanate and can grow into waves of transformational change. It also proposes that, despite differences in race, religion, gender, sex, ability, age, and species, we are all part of a single living ecosystem and inter-related structure of reality. When we cause harm and suffering to others, we are simultaneously inflicting suffering upon ourselves. If we can transcend the ultimately artificial notion of being separate from each other and, instead, act as part of the same oneness, or as Dr. King wrote, “tied in a single garment of destiny,” we would be capable of healing ourselves and the world from the existential crises we are facing.

In recommending the sculpture’s design, the art committee felt the artwork also represented people who face great challenges and hardships in life. They may seem to be invisible to society, whether by society’s neglect or intention, but nonetheless, they are present and what impacts them directly, impacts all of us indirectly.

Click here for more details about the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park

Click here for more about the Artists