YesThatTom's Dr. MLK, Jr. Day Message
Jan. 20th, 2003 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesthattomThe theme of this year's MLK, Jr Day, as set forth by The King Center is "Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On . . . Not A Day Off"
I encourage people to ACT today. Find some injustice and work towards fixing it.
I'd like to point out two often-forgotten things about MLK, Jr's work.
First, he spoke out against the economic injustices that form the basis of many of the social injustices in our society. 30 years ago this year he said that one of the worst problems is when thieves steal with such finesse that it is called embezzling. Considering the last couple years of Enron/Tyco/WorldCom debacles, his words couldn't be more true. Yet, the powers that be let us celebrate his life as long as we are silent on working on the true roots of injustice. When we mock the anti-WTO protests, we are giving into letting this happen.
Secondly, people rarely realize that he did all of his work with humor. In 1963 when he spoke at Drew University, Madison, NJ, he opened by explaining that great changes are coming due to the world becoming smaller thanks to the jet airplane technology. He cited a quote by Bob Hope about how the world is moving so fast that soon you will be about to board a plane in New York bound for LA and "hick" in New York, and "up" in LA. Today the internet makes the world even smaller and the importance of acting as one human family becomes greater.
His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" opens with an often overlooked joke:
Yet, if every person that felt strongly about social justice donated $100/year (or about $10/month) to a socially liberal candidate, it would be enough money to elect this person to the Whitehouse and not have to accept any corporate/lobby/special interest donations, and completely fund a couple social programs to boot!
I encourage people to ACT today. Find some injustice and work towards fixing it.
I'd like to point out two often-forgotten things about MLK, Jr's work.
First, he spoke out against the economic injustices that form the basis of many of the social injustices in our society. 30 years ago this year he said that one of the worst problems is when thieves steal with such finesse that it is called embezzling. Considering the last couple years of Enron/Tyco/WorldCom debacles, his words couldn't be more true. Yet, the powers that be let us celebrate his life as long as we are silent on working on the true roots of injustice. When we mock the anti-WTO protests, we are giving into letting this happen.
Secondly, people rarely realize that he did all of his work with humor. In 1963 when he spoke at Drew University, Madison, NJ, he opened by explaining that great changes are coming due to the world becoming smaller thanks to the jet airplane technology. He cited a quote by Bob Hope about how the world is moving so fast that soon you will be about to board a plane in New York bound for LA and "hick" in New York, and "up" in LA. Today the internet makes the world even smaller and the importance of acting as one human family becomes greater.
His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" opens with an often overlooked joke:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work." (emphasis mine)The humor there is that he creates an image of a room full of secretaries working for him. That's hilarious. He has no such support staff, and he mocks his critics that do with humor and grace. Today the fight for social justice is very much an economic one. The right has successfully deployed a strategy to "de-fund the left" on college campuses, to overpower the Right To Choose with well-funded campaigns that create endless nuisance lawsuits which leave little energy for pro-active work, and think-tanks that spend endless amounts of money to find ways of destroying the lives of anyone seen as a significant threat to their ill-gotten powers.
Yet, if every person that felt strongly about social justice donated $100/year (or about $10/month) to a socially liberal candidate, it would be enough money to elect this person to the Whitehouse and not have to accept any corporate/lobby/special interest donations, and completely fund a couple social programs to boot!
