Earlier this evening, I created the image thats now my FB cover. As I waited to learn about the grand jurys decision in Ferguson, I kept returning to ideas in Martin Luther Kings Letter from a Birmingham Jail. King wrote this essay in 1963 after being arrested for a violating a judicial order barring peaceful assembly and protest. If youre not read Letter youll find it linked below. Its a powerful piece, still relevant fifty years on. A week and a half ago, I sat in a hushed auditorium, listening to Representative John Lewis speak (along with Nate Powell & Andrew Aydin the co-creators of his comics memoir March). I was moved to tears as I thought of his strength, patience, and persistence. I thought of him being beaten on the Selma bridge, imagining what must have been such apprehension as he and his fellow marchers approached the bridges peak and saw the police awaiting them. Nearly sixty years into his work as a civil rights advocate, Lewis has seen many changes, but he knows there remains so much work left to do. The community in which I grew up - for all of its goodness - was also a place that didnt tolerate differences well. If you could be private about it, fine, but skin color isnt something that one can keep private. I saw more instances of hate than I care to recall (and I saw and experienced a lot of compassion and love too). As a woman and a lesbian, Ive been on the receiving end of some acts of hate: Ive been called names, threatened, ridiculed. But Ive been afforded plenty of privilege as well: no one has beaten me, jailed me, killed me. I can walk through my days without much suspicion or fear. I dont know why Im writing any of this except that Im trying to understand where we are as a country and how I can be more of a positive force going forward. I firmly believe that nonviolent civil disobedience is the right strategy, that we must all look out for one another and strive to make this place better. As Dr. King wrote in that Birmingham letter, 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. africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 03:52:10 +0000
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