Campus Progress Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Ben Adler
Thursday January 11, 2007
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
 Of Dr. King’s many wise and prescient quotations, none resonate today with quite the moral force and profound relevance of that one. King is typically described as a “black leader” or “civil rights activist.” While he was both of those things, such terms are far too narrow to adequately describe him. King was a human rights activist. He stood up for the rights of all people to be free from brutality and oppression.
Today, Americans desperately need a Dr. King to shake them from their complacency about the human rights violations being committed in their name. From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay, the American government has imprisoned innocent people alongside some of the world’s most violent offenders, and systematically abused them. Just like African-Americans in the pre-civil rights era South (and lamentably sometimes still today) Arabs and Muslims are railroaded into American prisons. We have subjected them to officially-sanctioned water torture eerily reminiscent of the fire hoses aimed at Birmingham protestors. Meanwhile, the USA PATRIOT Act has enabled federal law enforcement officials to use methods that would make King’s tormenter, J. Edgar Hoover, proud. In 2001 the bill passed overwhelmingly, and last year it was renewed without any major rallies in opposition.
If King were alive today, surely he would be militating against the growing economic inequality of our society and the sinister incompetence of the Bush administration toward the poor—and disproportionately African-American—residents of the Gulf Coast in the (still continuing) aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And just as he opposed the last major American military misadventure on foreign soil, he would no doubt be speaking out against the Iraq War and the recently announced troop escalation.
But, just as surely, King would be fulfilling what may be his most enduring legacy: his insistence that the work of citizenship is never done. Martin Luther King did not rest when the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act passed. Were he here today to see the former and latter betrayed by this Administration, he would no doubt be back in the streets, leading marches and willfully submitting to arrest when necessary.
And without a doubt, he would be leading the protests against the fascistic tactics being used by our government in the “struggle against global extremism.” For King understood clearly, as he expressed in the quote above, that a black person’s rights are a white person’s rights are a brown person’s rights are an immigrant’s rights are a foreigner’s rights. He would no sooner have tolerated racial profiling of Arabs on airplanes than he would have allowed racial profiling of African-Americans on the streets of our cities.
Young people today are often accused of apathy. But perhaps they’d be more likely to rally if they were blessed with inspiring leaders like Dr. King to rally around. Though, because of his belief in civil disobedience, he was dismissed as a demagogue and even a thug by conservatives at the time, he is now hailed across the political spectrum as a member of the pantheon of American heroes. After years of conservative opposition to naming a day in King’s honor, we now have a national holiday to celebrate his legacy. This year, it is Monday, Jan. 15. At Campus Progress we commemorate him by pledging to remember his most important lesson: that no one should stand by and watch systematic oppression without rising up in protest. May we be so lucky as to find a leader half as brilliant, half as brave, and half as eloquent as Dr. King.
--------
Comments
Leave a comment about this article below. For more discussion, visit our community page and sign up for your own Campus Progress blog!
|
!
It’s a bit ironic… the quote you chose:
““Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963”
Is one of my least favorite quotes of his, and like everyone else here I do view the man as a hero.
Why do I dislike it? Because, looking at the world around us, it’s evident that it clearly isn’t so.
And without a doubt, he would be leading the protests against the fascistic tactics being used by our government in the “struggle against global extremism.” For King understood clearly, as he expressed in the quote above, that a black person’s rights are a white person’s rights are a brown person’s rights are an immigrant’s rights are a foreigner’s rights. He would no sooner have tolerated racial profiling of Arabs on airplanes than he would have allowed racial profiling of African-Americans on the streets of our cities.
Do you mean to imply that we’re currently racially profiling Arab Americans on airplanes as a matter of policy? Because last I checked, the Right Wingers (Malkin, et al) have been gnashing their teeth and calling for Norm Mineta’s head on a pike precisely because we don’t.
— Joe - Jan 12, 12:28 PM - #Hi, videos!
— Ahmed - Feb 27, 10:40 PM - #<a href=http://claricee2427.tripod.com>free260</a><a href=” http://zhpg84.tripod.com “>zhpg84</a><a href=” http://thanhwands2719.tripod.com “>thanhwands2719</a>