Thoughts about,
MLK's Birmingham Jail Letter
But as I read on, I found that the, “higher,” that he was calling for was not a call to elevate oneself in confidence and take pride in the goodness of their cause. It was a call to humility.
In the truest sense, it was a call to honor those who were suffering by joining them. It was a training to prepare his followers to embrace their own similar suffering in purposeful humility. He called them and sought to prepare them to embrace similar hardships in obedience to God.
This included physical abuse, imprisonment, and even death. In this arena, he led by example.
This is in complete contradiction to our habit of viewing ourselves as morally superior to those that we disagree with. It is easy to proudly claim that, “We are on the right side of history.”
But King’s words were not just inspirational rhetoric. His words were backed up by principled actions executed in a confident faith. He challenged those who would join him to surrender their false sense of power through this discipline of intentional humility.
He described this practice as, “self purification.” A practice similar to step six in the twelve steps of A.A. When used in recovery, it focusses on letting go of character flaws, i.e., attitudes and beliefs that lead to self defeating patterns. Usually there are unexamined beliefs of extreme importance to the individual. So letting go can be a very big personal challenge.
On the political end of things, He was a representative activist. His problem assessment and problem solving plans were simple and direct with sound understandable goals. But as I said, he placed a great emphasis on the importance of the, “self purification," humility mentioned above.”
“Self Purification,” harmonizes with Jesus teaching in Matthew 7 about removing the log from your own eye and seeing clearly before attempting to help others with their blindness. In practicality, this greatly lessens the time and energy spent in being distracted by our own outrage, and reduces the likelihood of seeking violent escalation.
What AI says… about MKL’s self purification and competing protests.
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MKL's self purification involved workshops on nonviolence where participants prepared to endure abuse and jail without retaliating with the aim of building the courage needed to face violence, overcome fear and doubt, and ensure the movement remained morally elevated and ensure that even in the face of brutal injustice; protestors would be committed to responding with love and dignity.King considered it essential to distinguish their, conscientious, organized actions as separate from the acts of anarchy called for by the Black Panthers, (also active at that time.)
King focused on legal reform; the Panthers emphasized community-based action and empowerment.
King’s movement was rooted in Christian, nonviolent philosophy. While The Panthers were influenced by the teachings and practices of Malcom X, Maoism and Marxist-Leninism.
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Beyond ideology, this attitude,” of surrendering to God’s will,” also influenced King’s political actions and transcended his political positions. I believe a similar process was happening in the Reverend Billy Graham. These led to their effective collaboration in purposes and goals, even as their personal lifestyles and general political affiliations were so different.
As to his mission, King frequently shifts into philosophizing, then back to very practical actions like his goal of removing segregation signs, timing actions with seasonal shopping, local events and elections. He described his actions as being taken with the goal of creating nonviolent tension, or to dramatize events and capture attention so they would not be ignored. Tension through crisis’s like the bus boycotts were used to motivate negotiations.
But he was troubled with the decline in individual integrity he observed as people acted in groups, often loosing their sense of moral conscience. He sought to safeguard against forming this type of negative group consciousness that could be displayed as both apathetic indifference, and calloused disregard for wrongdoing and loss.
He was eloquently insightful in describing the multiple facets of suffering that black Americans of all ages had experienced back to America’s founding. He clearly distinguished between just and unjust laws, including the moral responsibilities to reject rather than passively tolerating injustice and to actively protect what is good through the creation of ever increasingly just Laws.
As to Dr. King’s compliance with unjust laws, he sought ways around them as able. And when unable, His, “civil disobedience,” was not expressed in taunting defiance or angry outrage. He accepted the consequences of his actions even as he sometimes identified them as, “acts of injustice.”
So in summary; MLK’s comprehensive approach and practice of nonviolent civil disobedience is nothing like what we have been seeing on our streets today.
My observation; For the past twenty years.
Protest leaders have become more like ghosts than true leaders.
As to his mission, King frequently shifts into philosophizing, then back to very practical actions like his goal of removing segregation signs, timing actions with seasonal shopping, local events and elections. He described his actions as being taken with the goal of creating nonviolent tension, or to dramatize events and capture attention so they would not be ignored. Tension through crisis’s like the bus boycotts were used to motivate negotiations.
But he was troubled with the decline in individual integrity he observed as people acted in groups, often loosing their sense of moral conscience. He sought to safeguard against forming this type of negative group consciousness that could be displayed as both apathetic indifference, and calloused disregard for wrongdoing and loss.
He was eloquently insightful in describing the multiple facets of suffering that black Americans of all ages had experienced back to America’s founding. He clearly distinguished between just and unjust laws, including the moral responsibilities to reject rather than passively tolerating injustice and to actively protect what is good through the creation of ever increasingly just Laws.
As to Dr. King’s compliance with unjust laws, he sought ways around them as able. And when unable, His, “civil disobedience,” was not expressed in taunting defiance or angry outrage. He accepted the consequences of his actions even as he sometimes identified them as, “acts of injustice.”
So in summary; MLK’s comprehensive approach and practice of nonviolent civil disobedience is nothing like what we have been seeing on our streets today.
My observation; For the past twenty years.
Protest leaders have become more like ghosts than true leaders.
Instead of challenging injustice, they bring reactionary chaos and destruction.
Instead of remedy and progress, they bring poverty as business and communities die under their sustained conflict with governmental authorities.
They bring the normalization of lawlessness and civic decay as our public spaces are first unsafe, then destroyed, in disrepair and then abandoned.
They are not committed to informing, or educating deeply. They are committed to propagandizing with the goal of creating outrage and chaos.
And those that share their values feel empowered and justified with the losses they are creating. They see these losses as the unavoidable cost of past injustices rather than their own recent wrong doings.
A surprising exception to this was in the Malheur Oregon Protests where the local Sherriff did an amazing job of avoiding escalation. And the Mayor held Town Hall meetings that were attended by both residents and protesters. This allowed civil dialogue and humanized opposing groups.
Since the basic conflict was with State and federal Government policy and past enforcements related to land use restrictions on fire control, the protesters restricted their disruption to the Wildlife Refuge, a Government facility away from the dense population areas.
But similar to other modern protests, overarching ideas of crowd discipline among protesters, like the self purification, that King practiced were not in effect. And like other modern protests, significant acts of vandalism and destruction occurred and were even celebrated by many of the protesters at the time.
And similar to the recent shootings by law enforcement of the protesters who inserted themselves into police/ICE enforcement actions. FBI/State Patrol protocol resulted in a similar tragedy as a farmer activist was gunned down much like the minivan driver, the ICU nurse and the unarmed ex-military female protester who was shot at the January 6th protest as she climbed through a window.
10 years later on the anniversary of her husband's death, Jeanette Finnicum, Wife of LeVoy Finnicum writes about the turmoil and loss, ending with...,
"Today, I want to tune out all the negative, destructive rhetoric we’re constantly bombarded with. I want to focus on the positive, optimistic, hopeful, uniting aspects of our community."
https://www.facebook.com/cowboystand/posts/pfbid0D2h5p4V2JwUUfvSN6wAX7FvHuzKpVZzkCx2Rw72DPj6dMVDbmj6ttipsNYiLkoVBl?__cft__[0]=AZZj895bzDIT-Nz21wOLWl392EMXxdpW6nc_BlDsclrUZuuLbWgH8xAHzeRTNw8b8b6mL6vSQ9AXMHuOFggPYwhsjmF3_GSWBXOdWHvA1JXTXCluLHLIccreO9_OtqbY9OrGEF8uvJZ1CW_yGErE2WQ1_384LACdGDvTcf1_z3ClB7qFIN0IYYvk2iWybRi3xx8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R
This sentiment is generally shared by community spokespeople in the short OPB video below.
‘‘We don’t talk about it’ – Harney County Oregon, ten years after Malheur occupation | OPB
To ponder the complexity and severity of the
Malheur Wildlife Center Story, See,
"Lethal Prejudice in Government,"
a playlist of clips and commentary
at the link the below.
(Click link above not picture below)
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