Originally posted on January 16th, 2004 . I think most of what I was thinking about war and peace and Dr. King are still relavent today.
I'm sad about that.
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I was going to do an all MLK edition of Peripheral Vision but this picture (and the persuasive commentary at Body and Soul):
had me really thinking about everything I was reading and it's context in the state of things right now.
It started with Negrophile's State of the Dream 2004:
- For every dollar of white per-capita income,
African Americans had 55 cents in 1968 and only 57 cents in 2001. At
this pace, it would take Blacks 581 years to get the remaining 43 cents.
- While white homeownership has jumped from 65% to 75% since
1970, Black homeownership has only risen from 42% to 48%. At this rate,
it would take 1,664 years to close the homeownership gap about 55
generations.
- If current rates of incarceration continue, one out of three
African American males born today will be imprisoned at some point
during their lifetimes.
- At the current pace, Blacks and whites will reach high school
graduation parity in 2013, six decades after the Brown v. Board of
Education school desegregation decision. And college graduation parity
wouldn't be reached until 2075, more than 200 years after the end of
slavery.
Really think about those numbers. As other communities make quantum
leaps in their parity with the majority, black folks are still stuck in
the tar. Still, essentially playing the role of
Br'er Rabbit. Why?
It gets deeper. Anitra notes this Washington Post article...
A federal report on racial disparities in health care
was revised at the behest of top administration officials -- and a
comparison with an earlier draft shows that the version released in
December played down the imbalances and was less critical of the lack
of equality. Government officials acknowledged and defended the changes
yesterday, even as critics charged that the Department of Health and
Human Services rewrote what was to be a scientific road map for change
to put a positive spin on a public health crisis: Minorities receive
less care, and less high-quality care, than whites, across a broad
range of diseases.
So, statistically, we're broke, undereducated, and not getting proper medical care. The dream is alive!
But, you know, our President cares...
President
Bush traveled to the South on Thursday to court black voters and to
emphasize his conviction -- disputed by Congress -- that the government
should devote more federal money to religious groups that deliver
social services. In visits to New Orleans in the morning and Atlanta in the
afternoon, Bush portrayed himself as an heir to the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr., saying that he shared with the slain civil rights
leader a belief in the transforming power of faith in American life.
That self-depiction, however, was denounced by antiwar protesters in
both cities.
Bush is striving during this election year to broaden support for
the GOP among African American voters, just 9 percent of whom voted for
him in 2000. He spoke at an inner-city black church here, before
stopping in Atlanta to place a wreath at the grave of King, who would
have turned 75 on Thursday.
He just loves the people. Oh, wait, what's this next paragraph?
Bush
also headlined two fundraisers on the trip, generating $1 million at a
luncheon here and $1.3 million at an Atlanta reception before returning
to Washington.
Oh, and this one...
Sheriee
Bowman, a spokeswoman for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
who attended the ceremony at King's grave, said she questioned the
"integrity" and timing of Bush's visit, because of his opposition to
affirmative action, which she called part of King's legacy.
Which brings me back to
body and soul, who quotes Dr. King...
I
am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary
results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But
in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.
It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated
ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending
in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the
opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate
rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred
rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood
impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue.
Violence ends up defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the
survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
But, you know, at least the president wants to send us to Mars. Martin
Luther King, Jr. couldn't think anything was wrong with that. Space,
the final frontier and all. Oh wait, let me, ahhh, yes,
Democracy Now! quotes...
King
said: "If our nation can spend $35 billion a year to fight an unjust,
evil war in Vietnam and $20 billion to put a man on the moon it can
spend billion of dollars to put God's children on their two feet right
here on earth."
You know, that's really true. But what's even more true is that this
has already become a forgotten holiday for a man we presume everyone
knows about and why he is important and yet,
Bethany Allen remarks...
Now.
Sadly, to many of us, Martin Luther King Day has taken its place
alongside the parade of holidays that have lost their significance.
It's hard to believe how that could have happened, given that MLK Day
has only been an official holiday for less than 20 years, but it's
true. Some of us don't even get the day off, so it can easily seem like
any other day. I thought about skipping writing about it altogether
this year, since I think I've already tried the ole man-in-the-mirror/
uplift-the-race guilt trip thing, and complaining about the
commercialization of any given holiday is played out, no matter how
wack it is that McDonald's could feasibly come out with a McMLKshake on
this year's dollar menu. (Imagine Justin Timberlake crooning, "I'm
lovin' it," here.)
We don't get the day off, officially, at my place of employ but I told
my staff to go ahead and express their appreciation for him by not
working for the man (ironically in this case, me) and maybe, just
maybe, doing some social service or at least doing some good learning
part of the day. I'll be doing the same.
And I'll be remembering the Martin Luther King, Jr. that I think we really need today. The Peace Activist.
It
is...unlikely that King, who warned that "a nation that continues year
after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of
social uplift is approaching spiritual death," would support the huge
price tag of our war with Iraq, especially when Iraq's link to the
events of Sept. 11 is nebulous at best, and when there are serious
economic concerns at home.
In his time, such positions by King were called "demagogic slander"
by Time magazine. The Washington Post editorialized that "King has
diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people." The
FBI dubbed him the "most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the
country."
In light of current events, King would remind us that people
everywhere - regardless of religion, nationality, or creed - are united
in "a single garment of destiny" and that no nation should act
unilaterally. He would assert (and, in turn, garner great criticism)
that it is only through treating our enemies as children of God that we
will ever create true global security.
And, even in the face of nuclear war, he would hold steadfast to his belief in the power of nonviolence.
More than ever this year, we ought to rediscover the life of Martin
Luther King Jr. in its entirety - both the easy and the challenging
parts. We may find that, once again, the man has a great deal to teach
us.
