Martin Luther King, Jr., Day - January 21, 2008 - 40 years later
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. -
STILL A PROPHET FOR OUR TIME
Two years ago at this time, I was in a Georgia jail. I could not help but
remember having lived in southern Georgia (Valdosta) while training with the
U.S. Air Force in 1956. It was very shocking to me to see the overt signs of
racism. A close friend in the squadron could not meet us in town-he was
denied access and subject to segregation in Valdosta. He was an outstanding
officer and effective crew member. I can still remember the day we took off
in two different planes to practice intercepts on each other. We were
notified that the other crew was not available. I did notice a plume of dark
black smoke. Yes, our 2 companions had crashed on take off. I never have
been able to get over his zeal to do his all to defend our country and yet
he and his family were denied housing, restaurant seats, even directed to
"colored" bathrooms and water fountains. He also had a flyer placed on his
windshield-"Vote for Lester Maddox,"
with an axe handle in hand, Maddox's logo.
Yes, we have come a long way since that era - but have Dr. King's deeper
dreams been realized? The local Imperial Valley newspaper today did look
back 40 years and asked "have we really achieved the depths of his vision,
especially in the latter days of his life: true equality for all peoples?"
In 2006, the racial inequities were obvious in the Georgia jails that I was
in. The vast majority of people that are incarcerated are African Americans.
Racial bias is patent. Sentences given take away the lives of the youth.
This year in Florence, Arizona, where some 3,000 of 3,700 prisoners were
Mexican also raised many questions-was the segregation of southern Georgia
any match for the wall on the border?
Martin Luther King shared with Cesar Chavez the vision and goal of a
multi-racial and multi-cultural society where power, responsibility, visions
and burdens are shared. Echoing Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker,
"It's that filthy, rotten system." King challenged a capitalism that brings
about great inequalities. The gap between the very rich and the poor is
extreme, the poor fight our wars-giving their lives and devastating the
lives and lands of the poor of the world.
Yes, after the idyllic "I Have a Dream" speech whose remembering on this
holiday evokes an image of children of all races walking hand in hand to
live lives together-of opportunity and abundance, later King led his marches
through the cities of the North. There the fire hoses were unfurled, the
dogs unleashed. I was in Chicago the summer of
1965 as a graduate student, living with the friars on the South Side.
We went to Allen Chapel and listened to Dr. King preach about "Dives and
Lazarus" - a message of great compassion. It was the ingredient for a system
that this prophet advocated to replace runaway capitalism. But on Monday as
they marched in the streets, King testified that the streets were meaner
than in the South-fire hoses, impaled marchers on trees, walls and asphalt.
Dogs were unleashed on seasoned bearers of nonviolence. Children were under
attack, and even Catholic sisters in their religious habits, accompanying
the protestors, claimed to have bricks thrown at them by their former
parochial school students.
Yes, Dr. King faced a tougher world after the great Peoples' March in 1963,
as he reached hard-core impoverished workers in the South and in the North.
He realized we needed a "revolution of values," based on compassion and
justice for all. Yes, he planned to go back to the U.S. Capitol, but not for
"a beautiful day" to join hands, but also for an expression of truth. Yes, a
million activists who would stay until justice was won.
But something even deeper had radically affected King. The Vietnam War was
fought by the poor of the ghettoes against the poor of Asia.
For King it was a turning moment - a "teshuva" - he had an urgent message to
bear to our world.
We are aware that we are trapped in the same unrestrained madness with its
staggering impact on our country and the terrible devastation of Afghanistan
and Iraq. Some estimates are they have lost as high as a million
lives-largely children, and the devastation of 2 countries not seen since
the war of which King spoke at Riverside Church in New York City in 1967, a
year before his death.
His words were truly prophetic at that time - perhaps he can once again
challenge us today. [Ed. Note: King's speech at Riverside Church is entitled
Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam, and all quotes in the
remaining paragraphs are from that speech. For the full text of this speech
visit this site:
<http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-13.htm>http://www.commondreams.org
/views04/0115-13.htm
]
I recall the first time I listened to this memorable speech how startling it
struck me. As I reread it this week, I realize that very few proper noun
changes would update his message for today's pulpit.
Prophetic voices never die, and still bear the force to change history.
Martin had just one year to the day to bear the prophet's mantle. But his
prophetic nonviolence continues to impact the world.
The assassin's bullet found its way to stifle his actions of nonviolence and
silence his denouncement of the war. But we cannot afford to allow that
bullet to stifle his prophecy for our times.
Dr. King shocked many when he spoke out so forcefully and cogently against
the Vietnam War. Even his own colleagues felt he could have a negative
impact on the Civil Rights campaigns. But Martin had come to see that
poverty was a great part of injustice - and saw that the Vietnam War had a
major impact on the poor.
Further, he realized that the bombing was a crucifixion to the poor of
Vietnam-in fact he insisted that war inevitably impacts the poor of the
world. He stated, "So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an
enemy of the poor and to attack it as such."
King was a disciple of Gandhi. He was a student and an activist practitioner
of nonviolence. But he found it very hard at that time to speak out against
the violence advocated by activists in our own country. After experiencing
the ghettos of the North and trying to convince those who were using
violence to attempt to bring about social change to use nonviolent means, he
noticed that "They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive violence to
solve its problems, to bring about changes it wantedŠI knew I could never
again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettoes
without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in
the world today, my own government."
To those who may think King is exaggerating this sentiment of returning
soldiers, I can attest to having this discussion in the Las Vegas ghetto
with very disturbed returning Vietnam Vets unable to get jobs, finding
impoverished segregated communities who were planning to react as they had
in 'Nam.'
King continues, "Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has
any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the
present war. If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy
must read 'Vietnam.' It can never be saved so long as it destroys the
deepest hopes of men the world overŠSo far we may have killed a million of
them, mostly childrenŠNow there is little left to build on, save bitterness.
Soon the only solid physical foundations remaining will be found at our
military basesŠWe must speak for them and raise the questions they cannot
raiseŠHere is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when
it helps us to see the enemy's point of viewŠ"
"Somehow this madness must cease. I speak as a child of GodŠI speak as a
citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have
taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop must be ours."
"Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while
we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We
must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative
means of protest possible. Every man of humane convictions must decide on
the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest."
"Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter,
but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of
God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response.
Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too
hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against
their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be
another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of
commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though
we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human
history."
Unfortunately Martin Luther King Jr.'s share of that human history had but a
year to go. There is strong evidence of a clear connection between King's
campaign against the Vietnam War, as well as his avowal to fill the Capitol
with determined activists on behalf of the poor of America (joined by
anti-war activists) not just to hold hands and sing but in true nonviolence
to immobilize "business as usual"
until clear actions were taken to address effectively the war on poverty, to
bring the troops home to their communities and restore the country so
devastated by a grossly debilitating and immoral war.
As we celebrate Black History Month during February, I always recall which
month by remembering Dick Gregory telling black students in Las
Vegas: "We really didn't expect to get a month with 31 days, but 28!"
Well, this year we get the extra leap day-surely as we did on the National
King Day, we will recall King's '63 Dream speech. Could we take our extra 24
hours to read, perhaps communally, his '67 vision?
Can we catch his prophetic spirit deeper, making our own turning
("teshuva"), put our lives on the line - challenge ourselves to end the
massive killing at home and abroad, stop business as usual and ride his
dream to a "peaceable new heavens" ("no nukes in space") and a new earth: no
wars anywhere, ever, true peace and sharing of the abundance for all-Pastor
Martin truly believed the source of all creation would one day open the way,
we must choose life-of all and for all-
The night before he was assassinated, 40 years ago on April 3, 1968, King
spoke these prophetic words: "It is no longer a choice between violence and
nonviolence. It is nonviolence or nonexistence." Yes, as the proliferation
of nuclear weapons spreads far beyond King had imagined we must all resist
nuclear war in whatever ways we are able.
But ever the man of faith and vision, Pastor Martin insisted to hope is "to
refuse to give up!"
We are created to live in a peaceful world-may King's prophetic spirit
continue to point the way!
Your brother,
Louie
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