Monday, January 16, 2006

[Misc.]

MLK: A Message For White Folks, Too.
"This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless Calvaries. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."
Poor MLK: his legacy, along with his holiday, is in danger of getting ghettoized. He is the civil rights leader; today is a black holiday. He should indeed be celebrated as the greatest of civil rights leaders; it's not wrong for his name to be used in the same sentence with Gandhi. But listening to the commentary today, I'm afraid that's the only context his name is used in.



His name should be mentioned among the greatest Americans--Lincoln, Franklin, Roosevelt. His activity was aimed at securing civil rights for a category of American citizens, but his language and his message was pure democracy. He injected into the deeply troubled racial war--shot through with jailings and lynchings--a higher language. While it did not dispel the toxic sludge in the hearts of the most inveterate racists, it did expose that hidden complicity in the hearts of Americans. He managed to move the country by appealing to their better selves, by demanding that they pay fealty to the virtues of democracy they extolled. King didn't just bring civil rights to black Americans, he made all America a more civil place.

Thirty-eight years after his death, Americans have begun to listen to anti-democratic demons again. Our government is the least democratic of any since the 20s: we jail Americans because of their faith or race; we allow the poor to starve while transferring vast wealth to the rich; we let the sick die; we fail to educate our poor. Of all years, in 2006, we shouldn't reduce King's message to one of black leader. He's a great American, and his message is every bit as relevant today as it was in 1954.
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

thats through a political lense.

mlk jr's message and work pointed well beyond the confines of your failed little democratic experiment here in the new world.

you seem like a sharp fella, start thinkin of somethin new would ya! democracy is old news

Jeff Alworth said...

Yes, well, this is a political blog. His religious message is worth looking at as well, but not here--

Anonymous said...

he's so sidelined i don't even get the day off from work! what good's a hero if he can't even get me a real holiday.

Anonymous said...

yer mighty quick to drop them political glasses when it comes to sports and/or beer, but not humanitie's plight?

wasnt tryin to bring up religion... shudder...

are there 'jeffies' this year?

Jeff Alworth said...

I think MLK's legacy is one that's deeply democratic, but also one of his legacy's least-explored elements. But that's just me.

As for the Jeffies--yes. I'm beginning the compiling process now, though as we reside in this filmy hinterland of Oregon, there are still a fair amount of late-year releases I haven't seen.

I have also been collecting together quotes from the year. Here's an early fave:

Anakin Skywalker: You are so... beautiful.
Senator Amidala: It's only because I'm so in love.
Anakin: No, it's because I'm so in love with you.
Amidala: So love has blinded you?

Yeah, that's right up there with Empire Strikes Back, all right...

Anonymous said...

do you think the next stab at a better democracy will factor in 'the appalling silence of the good people'?

Jeff Alworth said...

Who said "Democracy sucks, but it's the best we got"? Seems like that's where we are.

Anonymous said...

well thats a lame, and lazy, answer. didnt clint say sumpin like that in a dirty harry/fascist movie.

even a slacker like me tries to think outside the cup a coffee now and again