By Jim Heffernan
I find it a mind-crushing collision of lightness and darkness that Donald Trump’s inauguration and Martin Luther King’s birthday are happening on the same day. It’s a dissonance that I cannot bear. I shall ignore the inauguration and celebrate the birthday by reading his 1963 Letter From Birmingham Jail. (And listening to his speeches.)
The “Letter From Birmingham Jail” may be a long letter, but it’s a short book. In stature, it’s a giant book.
King was jailed for 8 days in April 1963 when he was 34 years old. He was jailed for violating a court order that prohibited “parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing” in Birmingham during the lunch counter sit-ins. His concern for his people and his country overshadowed any fear of arrest.
Jailed, he started writing the letter on newspaper margins but finished it on lined paper smuggled to him by trustees and lawyers.
The power of his prose makes his wisdom and love jump off every page.
He was assassinated before he was 40.
Here’s an excerpt from page 4, “Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. 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. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” (Bold, underlining is mine I think those are words to embed in our brains and hearts.)
From page 13, “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.”
From page 30, “…………One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in Judeo-Christian heritage and , thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”
Book in Harper-Collins edition is available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita and an audio book version at Tillamook County Library.
I have a PDF version from Atlantic Magazine (1991) I can email. Contact me at codger817@gmail.com. (34 pages, 6Meg file)
Myself, I am not going to sully MLK day by having anything to do with the Presidential Inauguration. I shall be listening to Martin’s speeches from Audible. You can join me on zoom starting at 10AM on January 20. Nothing fancy or particularly organized, but starting with his “I Have a Dream Speech”, followed by his “I’ve Been to the Mountain” speech and then whatever Audible has chosen. Here is the invitation link. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9289981221?pwd=UGFMQ3dVZ2ZzeXZtSUttWlJ2L3ZHQT09&omn=86539994869
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com
