Progressive Democrat Issue 105: REMEMBERING MARTIN LUTHER KING: Part I

I have referred to a friend of mine and reader of this newsletter, Chris Owens, before, quoting some of his better stuff. In honor of Martin Luther King, jr. Day, last Monday, I want to quote from Chris' blog. The entire diary can be found here (including a transcript of the 1967 MLK speech mentioned).

In 1967, I was eight years-old and attending Public School 208, a majority-white elementary school in the East Flatbush area. Today the surrounding area’s population is entirely Caribbean in population; then it was entirely white. My middle brother and I were “bussed in.” The Thanksgiving holiday was approaching when my 3rd Grade teacher, Miss Cohen, gave us a composition assignment: “What I Have To Be Thankful For.”

On this particular November day somebody rubbed me the wrong way. My composition ended up entitled “What I Do Not Have To Be Thankful For.” In it, I wrote that the United States was wrong to be involved in the Vietnam War and that we should not be bossing around other nations. My parents were active in community and political issues so I was aware of the Vietnam War. Only a few weeks earlier I had participated in the Moratorium Day protests with my parents. And somewhere I must have heard or read King’s words from the previous spring. It was one of our assignments to read the newspaper every day for what was known as “Current Events.”

...My teacher freaked. She called in the principal, Dr. Harry Ordan, to deal with me. I was already a behavior problem, so my desk was front and center in the classroom. Dr. Ordan came in the very next day and proceeded to seat himself on my desk and explain why the United States had to be “the policeman of the world.” Maybe he had been reading Dr. King’s speeches, I don’t know. Dr. Ordan never mentioned my name, but he did refer to some words “written by one of your classmates” and he was looking dead at me through most of his little talk. As much of a class clown as I was, I was still embarrassed by the attention -- but I did not regret what I wrote.

When my mother heard what happened, she came into school and tore into Ordan like a lioness fillets a wildebeest. I only wish I had actually been in the room when it all went down. The principal did apologize to both her and me for any embarrassment or inconvenience. And he never apologized for his political views.

...

Flash forward 39 years -- the lifetime of Dr. King. I was a candidate for Congress in Central Brooklyn sitting in an interview with three representatives from one of Brooklyn’s local newspapers. My opponents were also present and answering questions. To paraphrase slightly, I was asked if I would support the use of nuclear weapons if an enemy nation first used nuclear weapons against us or one of our allies.

As my opportunity to respond approached, my parent’s voices and actions were in my mind. But it was Dr. King’s speech at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 that was ringing in my ears. This was a speech in which King laid out the moral imperative for peace and an end to U.S. prosecution of the Vietnam War. King articulated a history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam’s affairs as well as the bankruptcy of moral leadership within the United States itself. It was masterful and, as we listen to it today, chilling. Every issue he mentioned remains an issue today. Every dilemma confronting our nation then continues to confront us now.

To nuke or not to nuke, that was the question. My answer was an unequivocal “no” – I would not support the use of nuclear weapons. The publication responded a few weeks later with a dismissal of my perspective on the use of force in defense of our national security as naïve and unrealistic for a potential Congressman. Another candidate whose answer was less clear and less threatening received the endorsement. Who knows? Maybe he felt exactly as I did, but just "couldn't" say it.

Like 1967, 2006 reminded me of the power and fear accompanying the primacy of peace. Will we let fear rule us? In this day and time, the use of nuclear weapons by the United States of America -- an act of such horrific violence -- would be morally unacceptable, environmentally disastrous and strategically counterproductive. Why should I even have to say this? Because we choose to live in fear? And why do we live in fear? Because we are totally disconnected from Dr. King’s vision … and our leaders have no intention of reconnecting us anytime soon. For Dr. King, as for Gandhi, Jesus of Nazareth and so many others, the way to peace and enlightenment was through love. Love is the way.

...

A few months after my 3rd Grade Thanksgiving composition was due – exactly one year after his dissection of the Vietnam War and his call to oppose it -- Dr. King was assassinated in the city of my father’s birth – Memphis. He was buried on April 9th – my ninth birthday. The five days leading up to that day had been some of the most emotional and confused days I had ever experienced. My birthday was the saddest and longest day of my life and, with the exception of 9/11, remains so to this day.

What has changed since King’s death? King regularly denounced the evil triumvirate of racism, economic exploitation and militarism. All three evils have only evolved during the past four decades. And nowhere is this more evident than in our prosecution of war in Iraq. With Iraq, racism at the lunch counter is replaced with ethnocentric prejudice fueling local conflicts, our own willingness to engage in nation-experimentation “somewhere else,” and the hatred, fear and prejudice displayed to those who have chosen to immigrate to America.

With Iraq, economic exploitation is now defined by the battle over oil production as well as the profile of our military – some of America’s hardest working and some of its poorest residents – as well as its most courageous. The militarism is evident in the Bush administration’s obsession with displaying America’s might – and weaknesses – to the world, and the desire to provide mega-profits to multinational corporate interests.

Substitute “Iraq” for “Vietnam,” and consider these prophetic words from King’s Riverside Church speech:

"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

...

Today, we must work to end our involvement in Iraq – not simply because we are selfish but because we do not believe that the violence embedded within the proposed solutions can ever work. Come to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, January 27 to march against the war and, on Monday, January 29, to lobby members of Congress.

Why is this holiday different from other days? Because the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is the day that has no meaning without action to help somebody. Because January 15th is to be lived every day for our children's sake. Because the King holiday is the annual call to join the change brigade. Thanks, Mom, thanks, Dad, thank you, Martin, for instilling love as a core value in my life.

Can't really add to it. Visit Chris' blog to read the MLK, jr. speech he references.

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