A Message from Business Manager Chris Erikson
This is perfect timing to reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. People of good conscience need to be reminded of why Dr. King fought so hard to end segregation and racism in America. Take a walk in someone else’s shoes, and tell me you don’t feel that pain. Like Dr. King said, we can’t wait. It is hate driving those who would take us back to a dark time, and those who lead them down that path need to be called out for it. The election for the soul of this country is less than 10 short months away.
Yesterday, on Dr. King's birthday, the NY Daily News Editorial Board printed the following opinion piece, and I find it important enough to share with you in full.
"In 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was behind bars in Alabama as a result of his continuing crusade for civil rights. While there, he was the subject of criticism by eight white clergymen, who called his protests and demonstrations ‘unwise and untimely.’ In response, King wrote a letter from Birmingham City Jail, noting, ‘I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’
“It stands today as one of the great writings in American history. Here, from the letter, is a single, pain-filled, 300-plus word sentence, explaining why waiting was ‘unwise and untimely’:
“‘But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your 6-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a 5-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos, ‘Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?’; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading ‘white’ and ‘colored’; when your first name becomes ‘nigger,’ your middle name becomes ‘boy’ (however old you are) and your last name becomes ‘John,’ and your wife and mother are never given the respected title ‘Mrs.’; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.’”
