Today marks the 39th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis while supporting the efforts of sanitation workers to achieve dignity and better working conditions. He has been dead as long as he was alive. 39 years.
In that relatively short, Jesus-like lifespan, he accomplished so much. From the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, he was there in the lead of a nonviolent army. He reluctantly took on the role of public leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955; he so eloquently expressed his -- and Black America's -- dream in August 1963; he just as eloquently, but not so well publicized, expressed the nightmare that was reality after four young girls were killed in the terroristic bombing of a Birmingham church later in 1963. King connected the dots between a fall-off in federal budgetary support for President Johnson's War on Poverty and his escalation of the war in Vietnam. What a parallel to what we are experiencing now, as the US pours billions into Iraq, pallets of which have disappeared, unaccounted for, but can't get its act together on resurrecting Gulf communities this long after Hurricane Katrina!
King's works and his philosophy, his challenges and his courage should be on our minds every day as we vow to do our very best to make this a better world.
Showing posts with label MLK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MLK. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
The King Memorial Inches Forward in Washington
A sculptor from China has been chosen to carry out the project along the Tidal Basin on the National Mall, and according to a report in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 16 quotations have been selected to adorn the proposed structure.
Among them:
• "Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
— Feb. 4, 1968, Atlanta
• "We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
— April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.
• "Make a career of humanity... commit yourself to the noble struggle ... you will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
— April 18, 1959, Washington, D.C.
• "If we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."
— Dec. 24, 1967, Atlanta
• "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
— April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.
For more information on this $100 million project – and to contribute – go to: www.mlkmemorial.org
Dreaming is fine; DOING SOMETHING is better.
Among them:
• "Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."
— Feb. 4, 1968, Atlanta
• "We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
— April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.
• "Make a career of humanity... commit yourself to the noble struggle ... you will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
— April 18, 1959, Washington, D.C.
• "If we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."
— Dec. 24, 1967, Atlanta
• "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
— April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Ala.
For more information on this $100 million project – and to contribute – go to: www.mlkmemorial.org
Dreaming is fine; DOING SOMETHING is better.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Lost MLK Speech
If you go to the following, you can hear a speech that Dr. King gave at a synagogue, the Temple Israel of Hollywood, in 1965.
http://historynews.wordpress.com/2007/01/06/audio-of-mlk-1965-temple-israel-sermon/
"Violence cannot solve the problems of the world. Violence is both impractical and immoral," he said in a sermon that might well be made today.
If you haven't heard, many of his papers will go on exhibit today at the Atlanta History Center. They will remain on exhibit until May 13.
http://historynews.wordpress.com/2007/01/06/audio-of-mlk-1965-temple-israel-sermon/
"Violence cannot solve the problems of the world. Violence is both impractical and immoral," he said in a sermon that might well be made today.
If you haven't heard, many of his papers will go on exhibit today at the Atlanta History Center. They will remain on exhibit until May 13.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
In Honor of MLK, A Young Woman's Reflection on Nonviolence
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is upon us once again. In light of the Iraq war, the United States' continued presence in Afghanistan, the carnage in the Darfur region of Sudan and the long, seemingly permanent pall cast by 9/11, let us reconsider Dr. King's most important tool: nonviolence. Today, the very idea of employing nonviolence as a political end to resolve conflict has been delegitimized and defiled. Nonviolence is dismissed as antiquated and effete, its proponents naïve and anti-intellectual. However, nonviolence and its twin, nonparticipation, are still powerful.
In launching an ill-conceived war, President George W. Bush refused to allow diplomatic discourse to be diplomatic. Instead, the bluster and hubris that have hallmarked his administration browbeat the coalition of the so-called willing into joining the United States in a preemptive war. The drumbeat to war was amplified by vengeance paraded in jingoistic rhetoric. To meet out exceptional violence to our enemy was endorsed by our president and substantiated by our country's short, bloody history. War and the rumors of war were the only articulations allowed to emerge on the political and social landscapes. Fear of being labeled unpatriotic silenced politicians, clergy, media and individuals. In such an atmosphere, to espouse nonviolence would be to commit political, social and professional suicide.
Four and a half years into the Iraq debacle, the country is no longer divided, but solidly opposed to the war; and its critics have been unleashed. Now, as President Bush stumps among conservatives for support for his newly unveiled escalation plan, those in the public eye who support withdrawal from Iraq must be careful to introduce their ideas with the caveat that they have no wish "to cut and run." To lay down arms in the face of violence is decried as cowardly. The untenable situation in Iraq has the U.S. in what my Aunt Ruth would call a trick-bag: We have fallen easily into a simple contraption but cannot find our way out. The answer, according to our president, is to ratchet-up our military presence in order to combat increasing Iraqi violence. In short, violence begets violence.
How then is the bloody cycle to be broken? If we are to learn and somehow heal from our national experience in Iraq, there must be those of us who, in times of national crisis, do not fail to offer the legitimate nonviolent examples of the Gandhi-led British resistance movement in India, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and yes, the United States during the oppressive days of the civil rights movement. If we find it too burdensome to research history, we may look to the more recent demonstration of people power in the Orange Revolution that took the Ukraine by storm. We must reintroduce nonviolence as a legitimate, practical concept. We must divest our commercial and personal interests, thereby denying fodder to the war machine. Most important, we must love our neighbor regardless of any divisional constructs. There can be no violence in love.
--Suzette K. Shipp
In launching an ill-conceived war, President George W. Bush refused to allow diplomatic discourse to be diplomatic. Instead, the bluster and hubris that have hallmarked his administration browbeat the coalition of the so-called willing into joining the United States in a preemptive war. The drumbeat to war was amplified by vengeance paraded in jingoistic rhetoric. To meet out exceptional violence to our enemy was endorsed by our president and substantiated by our country's short, bloody history. War and the rumors of war were the only articulations allowed to emerge on the political and social landscapes. Fear of being labeled unpatriotic silenced politicians, clergy, media and individuals. In such an atmosphere, to espouse nonviolence would be to commit political, social and professional suicide.
Four and a half years into the Iraq debacle, the country is no longer divided, but solidly opposed to the war; and its critics have been unleashed. Now, as President Bush stumps among conservatives for support for his newly unveiled escalation plan, those in the public eye who support withdrawal from Iraq must be careful to introduce their ideas with the caveat that they have no wish "to cut and run." To lay down arms in the face of violence is decried as cowardly. The untenable situation in Iraq has the U.S. in what my Aunt Ruth would call a trick-bag: We have fallen easily into a simple contraption but cannot find our way out. The answer, according to our president, is to ratchet-up our military presence in order to combat increasing Iraqi violence. In short, violence begets violence.
How then is the bloody cycle to be broken? If we are to learn and somehow heal from our national experience in Iraq, there must be those of us who, in times of national crisis, do not fail to offer the legitimate nonviolent examples of the Gandhi-led British resistance movement in India, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and yes, the United States during the oppressive days of the civil rights movement. If we find it too burdensome to research history, we may look to the more recent demonstration of people power in the Orange Revolution that took the Ukraine by storm. We must reintroduce nonviolence as a legitimate, practical concept. We must divest our commercial and personal interests, thereby denying fodder to the war machine. Most important, we must love our neighbor regardless of any divisional constructs. There can be no violence in love.
--Suzette K. Shipp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)