Monday we celebrated the teachings and words and, most of all, the actions of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was assassinated at 39 years old, but in those short years he moved our nation closer to its stated aspiration of becoming a more perfect union.
His challenge to America was “be true to what you said on paper.”
Freedom and justice for all. Freedom of speech. The right to protest for right.
If he were alive today, at 96, that still would likely be King’s mission.
He would likely politically and economically challenge politicians and corporate elites who, within a few years, would abandon their promised commitment to diversity and inclusion.
He would fight income and wealth disparities and support organized labor, as evidenced by the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C., and his marching with Black sanitation workers in Memphis on strike for workplace safety and fair pay. He would be killed the next day.
King would be intentional about the advancement of women in the workplace and lifting children out of poverty, knowing childhood poverty often centers on the mother’s economic status.
He’d be concerned about an ever-ballooning military budget and cuts to the social safety net.
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” King said in his 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.”
King, who said “there comes a time when silence is betrayal,” would likely encourage all corners of society to speak out for positive change and against things that negatively impact the poor or disadvantaged. And he would likely use his own platform to amplify the voices of those who for centuries have been forced to whisper.
“All of us should continue to not be silent about the things that will happen in the next few years but give voice. Speak and not be timid about speaking, and give voice to things that matter,” said the Rev. Linda Smith, pastor of the Martin Luther King Baptist Church in Renton, whose congregation will host a day of community service on the King holiday.
Those who honor King’s legacy, not just on MLK Day but every day, should find solace in his words from his book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
“The line of progress is never straight. For a period, a movement may follow a straight line and then it encounters obstacles and the path bends. It is like curving around a mountain when you are approaching a city. Often it feels as though you were moving backward, and you lose sight of your goal: but in fact, you are moving ahead, and soon you will see the city again, closer by.”
— From Tribune News Service
