King's
Legacy
“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.
Tomorrow
marks fifty years since Dr. King wrote those sentences in his Letter
from the Birmingham Jail. Since then, they have blown the rarefied
air of freedom around the world millions of times; been evoked in all
areas of the planet where people live in unjust circumstances. He was
a prophet in the camp of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He came to
Birmingham, having been invited by clergy already engaged in
nonviolent resistance, to help organize and train young people to
protest at Easter time, the second biggest shopping season of the
year. They took to the streets in a manner that, while peaceful,
created chaos downtown, location of all the major department stores.
I wish you could visit our Civil Rights Institute and see the photos
and films of those singing, chanting young people. It was a beautiful
sight—similar to Cairo a few years ago.
We
will read Letter from the Birmingham Jail tomorrow morning at Pilgrim
to celebrate the occasion. Dr. King wrote about segregation as an
immoral law, and it was. I'm glad to say, Birmingham is a different
city today—we haven't arrived at equality by any means, but we're
on the right road to get there. Most all the downtown churches are
integrated and happily so. But Alabama as a whole is still battling
against the change that future generations demand—equality for all
in every way. This state passed a Defense of Marriage Act, and one of
the harshest immigration laws in the country. Both will, no doubt, be
overturned by the Supreme Court, but our legislature just had to pass
them anyway. “We dare defend our freedom” to be on the wrong side of history, I
guess. It's embarrassing to many of us.
One
freedom we have in this country, even in Alabama, is this thing we
call freedom of speech. I can write anything I want in this blog, and
as long as it is not outright treason, or incitement of civil
disobedience, I am safe. So much of the world still does not have
this assurance, and we are right as a nation to stand against
injustice and abuse of citizens by authoritarian regimes. But, just
as in Dr. King's day, the disenfranchised people themselves have to do the heavy
lifting. They must take to the streets in nonviolent protest, and
continue to do so until change occurs. It's akin to birthing a
baby—you can't stop because the labor is painful. Justice for all
is coming, regardless.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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