Why I will not pause
Today we celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther
King holiday and my email inbox is jammed with references to the holiday; some are
inspiring, while the shallowness of others is sad. My friends Jeff and Wendy Elkins published a
great post on Dr. King, including a YouTube clip of one of his most memorable
speeches. Please check out the post andthe blog, because they have a lot to say.
A recurring phrase headed into the Dr.
King holiday is the suggestion for people to “pause and reflect” on Dr. King
and what he means to America today.
While I reflect on Dr. King and his legacy, I will not be pausing.
I will not pause because although today
leaders in business, government and religion espouse the greatness of Dr. King
and that we should all aspire to implement his ideals, I was alive when Dr.
King criss-crossed America fighting for those ideals and I do not remember many
politicians, Republican or Democrat, state or local, endorsing Dr. King. I also do not remember many religious leaders,
white or black, jumping on Dr. King’s bandwagon.
Looking at many of today’s “mainstream”
endorsements of Dr. Martin Luther King, I see most of them as shallow
concessions to convince people to support the endorser’s agenda, often far
removed from anything Dr. King would have supported.
I will not pause because all those in
America still seething about Dr. Martin Luther King, seeking to stagnate if not
reverse all the gains from his era have not paused, and never will. Today, words such as “white rights,” “entitlement
mentality,” replace “segregation” and “Jim Crow.” The vocabulary shifts, but the hatred behind
it stays the same.
I will not pause because pausing sends
the wrong message. Pausing says the path
to declaring his birthday a holiday was a smooth road of consensus, respect and
love. Check the facts. During the last election, the Republican
nominee for President came from a state that refused to acknowledge the holiday.
So even in 2008, those opposed to Dr. King’s ideals when he was alive and
fought making his birthday a holiday since before Ronald Reagan signed it into
law in 1983 had not paused.
Pausing says the unprecedented levels of
vitriol aimed at the current President of the United States and his family is
acceptable. It is not. Pausing says the
near continual questioning of the President’s birth, his religious beliefs and
his motives, hinting at deceit (“he’s not an American citizen”) and malevolence
(“he’s a socialist”) with no supporting facts is acceptable. It is not.
More importantly, pausing says we will not call the hatred directed at
the President the racism it is. I most
certainly will. I will not be
pausing.
There will be no shortage of excerpts
from Dr. Martin Luther King’s speeches today.
Most of them are well known. I
leave you today with a little known speech he gave on 4 April 1967, one year to
the day before his death. Reflect on the
speech, but vow not to pause.
