What would Dr. King say today?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was born on January 15, 1929.  Today, we officially celebrate his birthday and honor his legacy.  Given all of the events and changes of the past year, I can only wonder what Dr. King would say about the state of our world today.  

I believe he would say something about how polarized our country has become and tie that fact back to the state of race relations that existed during his lifetime (and which unfortunately haven't changed all that much), using "The Other America" speech that he gave at Stanford University on April 14, 1967 (see also one of my old posts, "The Other America" from last Spring).  His words then are eerily poignant in light of recent events in the past couple of weeks, "What I'm trying to get across is that our nation has constantly taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality. But over and over again at the same time, it made certain backward steps. And this has been the persistence of the so called white backlash."  

In this same speech, Dr. King goes on further to talk about civil unrest and civil disobedience:

Let me say as I've always said, and I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating. I'm still convinced that nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. That in a real sense it is impracticable for the Negro to even think of mounting a violent revolution in the United States. So I will continue to condemn riots, and continue to say to my brothers and sisters that this is not the way. And continue to affirm that there is another way.

But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

I would imagine that Dr. King would have a comment or two on the state of our health care system, especially in light of the racial and ethnic disparities that have persisted since his lifetime and are perhaps even worse now with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Back on March 25, 1966 in a Chicago press conference following the annual meeting of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, he said "Of all forms of discrimination and inequalities, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”  

And, rather than just talking about the problems we are experiencing today, Dr. King would offer a message of hope for the future, giving us a roadmap on how to move forward, just as he did in his famous, "Letter from Birmingham Jail".  He would likely tell us that we needed to do more, each and every one of us, both individually and collectively, to fight for social justice: "...all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows."  

I think Dr. King would also tell us that in order to bend the long arc of the moral universe towards justice, we would need to go deeper to understand these issues, perhaps deeper than we are comfortable with: "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

I would love to have that conversation with Dr. King.  I think he would have a lot to teach me.  Today, I think that the best way that we can honor his legacy and his memory is to go back and read some of his speeches and truly begin to live by his words.  We have a long way to go still, but “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”  Let us move forward.  “Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.”  “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”  “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.”