Martin Luther King Day – Again
Sun., January 19, 12:30 PM
I say “again” because I realize that I wrote about Martin Luther King Day a year ago. This holiday occurs around the time of his birthday, but in April we will observe that it is thirty-five years since he died.
If you’re younger than forty, you probably don’t remember his assassination, and you certainly don’t remember the political climate of the time. (At a similar age when Franklin Roosevelt died, I – despite a very good memory – recall only my mother leaning on her mop as she listened to the radio. She filled in details for me years later.)
The nation was badly divided in 1968. We were fighting in Viet Nam, and you were either for the war or against it; there was no gray area. If you knew someone in the military, your fervent hope was that we’d finish up quickly, before more people were killed. (It didn’t happen.) The nonviolent people protested regularly, and some of them committed atrocities in the name of peace. And those in authority, like the police, acted just as viciously.
Dr. King was anti-war. That made him a “bad guy” to all those who supported the war, whether you admired the way he helped his people or hated him because he was black. In fact, he had some valid arguments against the war:
- He pointed out that the boys who got drafted into the military were the poor ones, the disadvantaged, more black than white. He was correct. The easiest way to avoid military service was to get a college deferment. And who went to college? The white boys, the ones who had money for education, who had grown up with the background that prepared them for college.
- He felt that the government was spending money for an unwinnable war, money that could better be spent on helping poor people get an education, find jobs, improve their lives and their children. “Damned radical!”
I have always felt that, if there are people around with weapons, particularly if they tend to be volatile, you should stay out of the way. Keep a low profile. “He who turns and runs away/Lives to fight another day.” Something like that.
Dr. King didn’t keep a low profile. What he had to say was too important to whisper. He stood there and made himself a target. Perhaps he even had a premonition of death, but it didn’t stop him.
I was dozing when my roommate came in and said, “they’ve assassinated Martin Luther King.” And I believe I answered, “well, he asked for it.” That didn’t come out right, but I remember saying it.
The event was followed by riots and an even greater division between black and white people. None of it solved anything. It would be years until the war was over, and even more years before the rifts began to heal.
I have this terrible feeling of deja vu. Once again we’re hovering on the brink of a war that shouldn’t happen. I don’t want our kids killed, and I don’t want to kill Iraqi kids either. The economy is so bad, with jobs disappearing, that young people are looking at the military as if it were a refuge. We’re all losing our perspective. I absolutely hate it when we can’t learn from our mistakes.
