On MLK Day, celebrate our strides

[sonias]

I'm going to republish this OpEd from Jim Harrington from the TCRP newsletter this morning in honor of MLK. Jim Harrigton is one of the fine civil rights lawyers at Texas Civil Rights Project here in Austin, TX, a professor of law at the UT Law school, and a friend.

On MLK Day, celebrate our strides

Perhaps, if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were to write a letter on the holiday set aside for him, it might go something like this, albeit more eloquent:

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Forty-seven years ago, in August 1963, while imprisoned in the Birmingham jail for nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, I wrote a letter in longhand to eight religious leaders. They had criticized me for moving too fast on issues that didn't concern me, and saw me as an outsider from Atlanta, Georgia.

I reminded my religious colleagues that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider."

Today, as I look about, I am bewildered by the many political leaders, who assemble each year to commemorate me. They almost seem to make me a saint. It is as if many of them never heard my message. These leaders forget about my unrelenting challenge to this country's economic structures that leave so many people in severe poverty. Do they remember I was assassinated while trying to help low-paid Memphis sanitation workers raise their salaries? Do they not hear my lament about the racial barriers in education?

Instead, they focus only on the "safe" part of my life, not my voice lifted in prophecy against war and poverty, for which I was severely chastised. How can they not answer those contradictions I spent my life laying bare about the United States?

They ignore the many times I called America to task for using war against perceived national security threats? Then, it was Vietnam. Now, it is Iraq and Afghanistan.

When will Americans heed the vision of Isaiah to transform our weaponry of death into tools for peace to end world poverty?

Terrorists build off social inequality, lack of education, poverty, and a perverted view of the United States, which they perceive as materialistic and militarily aggressive. War, the killing of innocent people, and destroying social infrastructure provide them with recruiting opportunities they would not otherwise have.

What if the United States had used the $1.3 trillion it has spent on the wars to build schools and hospitals in foreign lands? Or starting farming coops? Those would have yielded more success in our common struggle against terrorism. And the world economy would have been better off.

Instead, 7,000 troops have died -- not to mention the tens of thousands now disabled, and a hundred thousand or more non-combatant men, women, and children in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I also lament the attacks on immigrants in our country, people who have migrated here to support their families. Perpetrating discrimination against them because of their national origin or religion will come to justify discrimination against others, an alarming regression in the hard-fought victories we won so painstakingly.

As Leviticus reminds us, "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself."

When you get together on my birthday holiday, don't just celebrate the strides we have made -- for many more remain to you. Organize to end injustice, anywhere and everywhere.

Your brother,
Martin

:loveya: MLK!

[sonias]

1. MLK's mark on UT

AAS 1/16/11
MLK's mark on UT
A look back at a day the civil rights leader spent on campus.

Few people know that Martin Luther King Jr. once spent the night in a little apartment on the top floor of the Texas Union at the University of Texas. The only clue that the room was a guest quarters was the sign on the door: "Quiet Room."

It was one public accommodation the civil rights leader probably never realized he had integrated.

The time was March 1962, almost 49 years ago. King was making a speech at UT, and the plan was to put him up at the historical Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin. But most of Austin was segregated then, and a UT official worried that the public would harass the black Baptist minister at the hotel. As a precaution, she decided King should be the inaugural lodger in the new Texas Union guest room, which was just large enough for a daybed, an easy chair and a bathroom.

"I was not concerned about the Driskill management at all," recalls Shirley Bird Perry, now a senior vice president at UT . "I was concerned about just a citizen or someone who'd heard he was staying there (making) some disparaging remarks."

In the early '60s, most Austin motels were segregated, but the largest hotels, such as the Driskill, allowed some black guests, records show.

Interesting slice of life story from one Austinite who met him and is still with UT today.

:kick:

[mbperrin]

2. Recommended and kicked!

The whole story of anything is so often reduced to minimal sound bites today that it is refreshing to see a bit of complete thinking. Thanks!

[onestepforward]

3. Very nice!

My favorite part is:

"I reminded my religious colleagues that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider."

We are all truly connected.

[sonias]

4. Yes we are

I get polled fairly often by one firm that always asks a question "Do you consider yourself primarily a member of your: A)City B)Country or C)Planet Earth"

I always say the planet.

:hi:

[onestepforward]

5. Good response!

:hi: