To read the whole letter, which we highly, highly recommend, clickhere to visit the full length pdf file.
A selection from Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail:
My response:
Later on, Dr. King talks about Extremists for Love:
Joe:
Signing off,
Microcaus’em
Dear America,
There are many things I want to share with you today. I will start by saying I love you and I believe in your spirit, your will for freedom. I want to see my country vital in its pursuit for an idealistic future, for a true democracy. I hope to see a population that believes in their power rise up like a the sun and redesign the current archaic structures that have become built up like a skeleton with no meat or blood. It is the people who support the bones and feed them. The people are the blood of the nation. Currently the being that is our government is a carcass of what remains of our nation’s vision for democracy.
As pained as I am by the actions of the government, I am deeply pained by the lack of action of the people. Speaking about the moderate whites who are addicted to order, I want us as a white community to make radical choices for justice. The middle class are the greatest preservers of a lifestyle bound to crash and burn. The people in our neighborhood who grew up here and are bound by the shackles of racism. A community abandoned by the state. We have complacency, a dulling of the spirit on both sides of the disease, the side of comfort and the side of discomfort. The question is then how do we disrobe this tension, of this MLK spoke.
Will I sooner see my neighbors house fall down around them, than see them take action towards their own justice?
Will I sooner see blood on the streets, America falling apart, before I see us as a nation make a real move away from oil?
I worry about “the war against humanity” as stated by Noam Chomsky. How are we caring for the people on this planet? How can we continue to put young women behind sewing machines for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week with no end in sight for years and decades so that we get a “good deal” on a what? a pair of pants.
When you wonder why thousands of people ride their bicycles through the streets in mass once a month in NYC or SF or any other city, hear their plea to love the earth. As the death count goes higher for soldiers in Iraq, people here are riding bicycles to be seen choosing life over oil. I see this as an act of love, extremists of love.
As a country I would like people to think about what they want to change in their lifetimes and take steps.
Choose an action that is yours, consider it daily.
I like a radical approach…… I look around and I see these things, options of peacemaking things we can do.
Make a garden, make food for friends and family, make a shirt, share your talents, bake an apple pie, make music, fly a kite in the wind, sew yourself some underwear, flush the toilet with water saved from your shower, smile while you are walking, trade stuff instead of buying, make your own envelopes, write letters, and March when it is time to March, study nonviolence, meditate, give stuff away, who are your heroes? Learn about them.
I write this full of passion and desire having read the letters from Birmingham City Jail. As Dr. King wrote:
I echo how Dr. King closed his letter with these above words. I invite you to share a response by leaving a comment or emailing me.
In Peace,
Hummingbean
