Posted by
Richard Larsen in Idaho on Monday, January 16, 2012 11:41:14 AM
By Richard Larsen
Published – Idaho State Journal, 01/15/12
So many things have changed since Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
tragic and premature death. The country that was divided mostly along racial
lines that he sought to heal and palliate is now divided more by ideology. His cardinal
wisdom and teachings endure, can be universally applied, and appertain as much
today as then.
King was a highly
principled man, driven by self-evident truths and fundamental values. He
referred often to those values. “If we are to go forward, we must go back and
rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations
and that all reality has spiritual control.” Some of those values were the very
principles upon which the nation was founded, that he found lacking in their
application to all Americans equally. “When the architects of our republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they
were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This
note was a promise that all men, yes black men as well as white men, would be
guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.”
He was an ardent
advocate of freedom and individual liberty. While his teachings were framed in
a culture of racism and racial discord, they apply universally to all Americans
in the quest for individual liberty. As he said, “Freedom is never voluntarily
given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Certainly those
are wise words of encouragement to those of us who object to the usurpation of
individual freedom by a government seeking to micromanage its citizens.
He continued, “Change
does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous
struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom.” Individual
and universal freedom was fundamental to him, without regard to ethnicity, and
he advocated freedom, as opposed to government programs that diminish it.
On another occasion he said, “I say to you that
our goal is freedom, and I believe we are going to get there because however
much she strays away from it, the goal of America is freedom. Abused and
scorned though we may be as a people, our destiny is tied up in the destiny of
America.”
He taught, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and
importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” He worked
hard, understood how hard work develops character, and likely would not be a
proponent of our welfare state, which in effect relinquishes personal
responsibility and accountability to the state.
He likely would have consternation for those who engage in
identity politics that are so pervasive today, where politicians sell out to
special interests for votes, rather than doing what’s best for the nation. For
as he said, “An individual has not
started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his
individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” And as if to
underscore this notion, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the
light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
Edmund Burke, considered
the father to conservatism, said, “All that is needed for evil to triumph is
for good men to do nothing.” King echoed that
sentiment, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this
period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but
the appalling silence of the good people.”
I think Martin
Luther King would have concurred with Morgan Freeman, who was interviewed a few
years ago in a “60 Minutes” segment with Mike Wallace. Wallace started out,
“Black History Month, you find…”, Freeman interjected, “Ridiculous.”
WALLACE: Why?
FREEMAN: You’re going to relegate my history to a month?
WALLACE: Come on.
FREEMAN: What do you do with yours? Which month is White History Month? Come
on, tell me.
WALLACE: I’m Jewish.
FREEMAN: OK. Which month is Jewish History Month?
WALLACE: There isn’t one.
FREEMAN: Why not? Do you want one?
WALLACE: No, no.
FREEMAN: I don’t either. I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is
American history.
WALLACE: How are we going to get rid of racism until...?
FREEMAN: Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And
I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike
Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, ‘I know this
white guy named Mike Wallace.’ Hear what I’m saying?”
Freeman, in that brief exchange, echoed MLK’s conviction,
that his children would “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged
by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” For your
enduring wisdom, we honor you, Martin Luther King, and your work. May we embody
and perpetuate the truths you taught.