Tom on Palestinian's History

 

Allegations against the United Nations Relief and Works and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, (UNRWA), have been accused of participating in the Hamas attack on southern Israeli towns in the early morning hours of this past Oct. 7.  

Whatever evidence was put before the UN must have been quite persuasive, because the UNRWA fired all 12 employees accused of involvement. 

The UNRWA is 75 years old, and has always been rumored to be sympathetic to the different Palestinian militant groups.  The group runs clinics, schools, and many of the services usually provided by municipalities.  Gaza in particular, and the larger Palestinian population centers, (primarily on the West Bank), have been largely transformed into a welfare state. 

The UNRWA plays the role of the benevolent father figure, and those 'poor' Palestinians are reduced to the role of mendicant; subsisting on alms and cash from the good offices of the UN.  Henceforth, there will be less cash dedicated to supporting the Palestinians. 

The US, along with Britain, Australie, Canada, and Finland, Iceland, and Germany,  have suspended their contributions to UNRWA, at least for the moment  

Perhaps the most significant difference is that the Israelis are smart and ambitious and believe in the value of education.  They have "..made the desert bloom...", as the old cliche goes. 

The Palestinians, by contrast, have languished in the ghettos and refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, plotting to take their revenge on the Jews, rather than rolling up their sleeves and making a nation for themselves. 

Much of the blame for their plight can be laid at the feet of the larger Arab world, which has used the Palestinian diaspora as something to make the State of Israel look bad. 

No Arab country has any intention of allowing Palestinians to settle in their respective countries, because

The UNRWA operates 68 refugee camps, located in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as Gaza and the West Bank.  Most were established in the wake of the Israeli War for Independence, (1948 et. seq.), and 10 or so were established in the wake of the 'Six Day War', (1967). In the wake of Israel's War of Independence both the Palestiniaqns and the Israelis were faced with urgent refugee problems.

Israel faced the problem of some 700,000 Jews expelled from various Middle Eastern countries.   She dealt with the problem by welcoming the refugees,  and working to integrate them into the. larger Israeli society.

There are not, and to my knowledge,never have been, Israeli refugee camps.  At the same time, there was a similar refugee problem with refugees on the Palestinian side of the equation.  Their refugee problems were due to displacement caused by the  Nakba.  (The Nakba is an Arabic word that means "catastrophe". It refers to the violent expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and homeland during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The Nakba also includes the destruction of Palestinian culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.) 

Palestinians who had fled in anticipation of an Arab pogrom that would drive the Jews into the sea, found themselves stateless when their militarily incompetent champions got their hats handed to them.  There were about 700,000 displaced Palestinians in the wind, and the solution proposed and implemented by the UN was to put them in camps.  What was a large but manageable problem of dealing with a displaced population has, over the ensuing 75 years, become an intractable problem involving over 5 million souls.  That's the difference between a civilized society and a primative one.  The Palestinian people suffer for the sins of their supposed leaders.    

The camps in question have alway featured gunplay and intrigue.  Over the past few months, there has been fighting in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, adjacent to the Lebanese port city of Sidon, located between Beirut to the north and Tyre to the south.

  No one has been successful in controlling the violence, but things have moderated to the point where it's been reduced to a smolder. Perhaps the most notorious case of camp violence occurred in the Sabra refugee camp, (Lebanon),  and the adjacent Shatilla neighborhood which was reported to have cost between 3,500 and 5,000 Palestinians their lives in 1982.  Even as Gaza burns, both Egypt and Jordan have refused to provide sanctuary to the displaced Palestinians.  Wherever they go, chaos follows...

Cuban Coffee

 

Tom on Migrant History in the U.S.

 Now that the first wave of primary elections are over, national attention is being directed at the flow of migrants crossing the southern border. 

 House Republicans to tout the HB2 bill, which is a draconian set of regulations that would be dead on arrival in the Senate.  But Senate negotiators were nearing a bipartisan compromise that offered some, but not all, of what  each side wanted. 

Until today.  It seems that Donald Trump has forbidden any compromise because he wants nothing more than to use the migrant flows as a cudgel with which to beat Joe Biden about the head.  Remember that this is the same Donald Trump who promised a wall between the US and Mexico that would prevent illegals from attempting to cross the border; a wall that would be paid for by the Mexican government.  How much have they paid so far?  Nothing.   Mr. Trump is cynical in such a profound way that he puts almost all politicians to shame. 

The nature of the movement north from Mexico and Central America has gotten more global over the past quarter century.  It used to be that the migrants were from Mexico and some of the more. unstable and violent Central American countries,  such as El Salvador and Guatemala.  Some were seeking asylum, but most were men seeking work. They would sneak into the country,  work in agriculture and construction, and then go back home for the winter.  A notable success was the 'Bracero' program that ran from 1942 until 1964.  It admitted temporary workers to the US, initially to mitigate a labor shortage that resulted from the manpower demands resulting from WWII,and were extended for the next couple of decades, because the program served everybody's purposes.  One of the criticisms of the program was that it had the effect of lowering wages earned by Americans, but there have been studies that examined data sets from the period in question and determined that there were no adverse effects on wages earned by native workers. 

Over the years the composition of the migrant flow has changed appreciably.  While it used to be the case that migrants were from Mexico and Central America, an increasing number are from such exotic locales as Russia, China, and Venezuela, to name just a few.  Everybody wants to go to a western country for any number of reasons.  Some are in search of opportunity, others are fleeing ethnic strife, (this is especially true for many African migrants), and others are fleeing the effects of climate change.  Instead of viewing migrants as a lower form of life, looking to displace White Americans, we should look at them as a sort of crop.  America is a nation with a demographic problem: American women are not having enough children.  Our population is getting older, and this is a problem facing all rich countries.  There is opportunity to breathe new vigor inti the American economy here, and we would be foolish to cut off our collective noses in order to spite our faces. 

Mr. Trump reminds me of Phineas T. Bluster, the mayor of Doodyville on the old Howdy Doody show that was a staple of TV whenI was a kid.  The show always kind of creeped me out, because marionettes, like clowns, are intrinsically creepy.  Too many freckles.  Too cheerful.  They all have the jerky movements of someone affected by spasticity.  You get the feeling that if you fall asleep in the marionette's presence, you'll never wake up. 

A Wonderful Sight

 

Whatever Happened to......

 You remember Mike Lindell.  He's the mustachioed dude who used to be a crack addict living rough on the street of St. Paul, MN, (which just this past week inaugurated an all female city council.  It made me think of the MD who did my second amputation.  He had an all female staff of residents and one med student.  They'd swan into my room around 0700, and I'd greet them as the 'Dreamgirls'.  It annoyed the Doc, but made them giggle.  Which is why I did it).  But I was talking about Mike Lindell.  You may not remember him, but I bet you remember his ubiquitous TV commercials for "My Pillow". Diane actually bought a couple of the things, and I have them still.  But Lindell, who turned out to be a marketing savant, also turned out to be a Trump-loving conspiracy nut.  He was a regular guest at Mar-a-Lago and the White House. He believed that the 2020 election. was stolen by crooked manufacturers of voting machines, (Dominion and Smartmatic), an assertion for which he's now being sued by botc companies.  He was ordered by an arbitrator to pay a software engineer 5 million dollars for debunking some cockamamie theory that Lindell had been offering to anyone who cared to listen. The tinfoil hat brigade had him funding all kinds of dubious 'research' into the validity of their favored  conspiracy. theories.  Today, Fox refused to accept his ad buys.  Lindell claims that he was 'canceled' by Fox, but the truth was that Lindell hasn't paid his bills.  He's broke.  Due to his foolishness, he managed to make his personal fortune, once estimated to be 60 million dollars, disappear.

Tom on the "Double Big Mac".

 It seem that McDonald's is introducing a gargantuan monstrosity called a "Double Big Mac".  I'm all for wretched excess, but I'm not sure that I could  open my mouth wide enough to get the thing inside.  Maybe I could learn to unhinge my jaw, like a carnivorous snake.  Those guys can swallow a goat or a large dog whole.  The "Double Big Mac"  contains four hamburger buns, 3 slices of bun, A sesame seed bun on the top, a bun for the middle that; bread on both sides, and a bottom bun), at least 2 pieces of cheese, pickles, lettuce and that cloyingly sweet sauce.

The current obesity rate for adults is 41.6%  and the rate among Blacks and Latinos is higher still, at 49.9% and 45.5%, respectively.  That's not even accounting for the many comorbidities  that are associated with obesity.  The Double Big Mac has 45g of carbs, 46g of Protein, and 43 g of fat.  Yow!   Total calories? 767.  And people who enjoy these gut bombs will probably get a couple of large orders of fries and a 'supersized' vat of some poisonous soft drink.  And this is how we deal with the obesity epidemic?    That made me think about one of those grotesque reality shows that was about a family who were all tremendously fat.  The premise of the show was that this family was going to henceforth lose weight and eat sensibly.  In the first episode , mom, (a nurse and the only person in the family to actually hold a job), brought home supper, which consisted of one of those foil serving pans that you see at church dinners, Bags of rotisserie chickens and styrofoam containers of ribs.  And don't forget the potato salad.  Everyone had their own 2 litre bottle of soda.  The next episode marked the beginning of the new diet.  Mom shows up with a foil pan of green salad.  Everybody looked puzzled,and the daughter began screeching like a rabid fishwife, shouting:  "What is this?  What do I look like, a damned cow?"  Well, now that you mention it.... 

James Carville is a Treasure

 

Dictator Video from Lincoln Project

 

Tom on Elections (Iowa Caucus Night)

 Elections often have the same inevitability that those old standbys, death and taxes, have long offered.  It's interesting because death and taxes are playing a role in today's festivities.  Taxes are pertinent because Republicans reflexively loathe anything that even hints at being a tax, even as they claim.to be the voice of reason when it comes to fiscal discipline.  I'm dubious about that assertion, because they continue to propose tax cuts for their very favorite cohort of Americans: The Hard working Billionaire plutocrats.  Many of them are too stupid to understand that fiscal salvation stands on a 3 legged stool of: time, (it took decades for us to get into the current mess we face, and it will take just as long to dig our way out of it), a rethinking of our spending priorities, (do we really need to spend a trillion dollars a year on the military? Do we need to lavish large sums of taxpayer dollars on agricultural subsidies, including the ludicrous ethanol subsidies that benefit only Iowa farmers who don't see it as the public welfare scheme  that it really is?),  and increased revenues, (If you want to pay down the national debt, you have to raise the money to do so in an orderly manner.  That means tax hikes.  To think otherwise is nothing more than a case of Magical Thinking).   And Death is creeping around the edges of the DeSantis campaign; licking the place where his lips would be, were he not a skeletal apparition.  

But before any votes are cast, I'll confess that I'm already sick and tired of the campaign. The candidates, have conscripted armies of motivated volunteers, and import  legions of paid staffers who infest every corner of the state, like medieval mendicants beseeching passersby,: crying "Alms for the poor ", and Iowa merchants grow fat on the expenditures of the various campaigns.  They rent cars, buy advertising, and consume meals and liquor as if money were no object.  These folks work hard and play harder, and prostitutes often flock to where the 'action' is, because that's where the money is.  The members of the Fourth Estate: blow-dried avatars of physical beauty and intellectual vacuity who repeatedly state the obvious to an audience of the uncomprehending.  For most of them, campaign coverage is a great adventure, much like those 8th grade field trips to the nation's capital that many of us remember, except that they were children back then and now they're adults with expense accounts and rented rooms. Their spouses are back in DC,  New York, or Atlanta, taking care of the kids and keeping the home fires burning.  You do the math:)

Speaking of expense accounts, some members of the media become legendary for their ability to manipulate their expense accounts to their financial advantage. One such was the legendary Johnny Apple of the NY Times.  He would come up with an outrageous excuse for an eye-popping charge on his expense account.  I recall reading about how he expensed a cashmere overcoat to The Times, claiming that his previous coat had been stolen by ":person or persons unknown", and that since he was at the airport in hot pursuit of a breaking story, the only place that he could find a suitable replacement was at the duty free shop at the airport.  The meals that Mr  Apple consumed on the Times' dime were of the pricey gourmet variety, and those don't come cheap.  

But Apple was probably the best reporter of the second half of the 20th century..There wasn't a big story that he didn't cover, and those he covered, he covered well.  He was most responsible for making the Iowa Caucuses the kickoff to the quadrennial spectacle that the presidential elections that it is today, when he relentlessly covered Jimmy Carter's 1976 trek through Iowa, making him a legitimate contender in the national consciousness.  In a sense, Jimmy Carter owes his presidency to Johnny Apple and The Allman Brothers Band, who pioneered the use of benefit concerts as a fundraising machine. 

After tonight, the circus folds its tent and moves on to New Hampshire.  The merchants and vendors will count their money, the volunteers will resume their mundane lives, and a couple of them will mout campaigns for seats on their local school boards and town councils because, once bitten by the political bug, nothing else will do.  It's showtime and I, for one, plan to watch some football and dine on fishsticks.  Have a pleasant evening...

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

 A U G U S T 1 9 6 3

Letter from Birmingham Jail
by Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the Birmingham jail, where he was imprisoned as a participant in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in longhand the letter which follows. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South.

Dr. King, who was born in 1929, did his undergraduate work at Morehouse College; attended the integrated Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, one of six black pupils among a hundred students, and the president of his class; and won a fellowship to Boston University for his Ph.D.

WHILE confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. 

I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South, one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Whenever necessary and possible, we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates.

 Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. 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. You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being.

I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.

IN ANY nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation.

These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of them, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation. Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating sessions certain promises were made by the merchants, such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. On the basis of these promises, Reverend Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstration.

As the weeks and months unfolded, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. The signs remained. As in so many experiences of the past, we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community. We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We  started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" and "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?" We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that, with exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on the merchants for the needed changes. Then it occurred to us that the March election was ahead, and so we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. Conner was in the runoff, we decided again to postpone action so that the demonstration could not be used to cloud the issues. At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the day after the runoff. This reveals that we did not move irresponsibly into direct action.

We, too, wanted to see Mr. Conner defeated, so we went through postponement after postponement to aid in this community need. After this we felt that direct action could be delayed no longer. You may well ask, "Why direct action, why sit-ins, marches, and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the nonviolent resister.

This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. So, the purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

We therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue. One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts are untimely. Some have asked, "Why didn't you give the new administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it acts. We will be sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Mr. Boutwell will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is much more articulate and gentle than Mr. Conner, they are both segregationists, dedicated to the task of maintaining the status quo. The hope I see in Mr. Boutwell is that he will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from the devotees of civil rights.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was "well timed" according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration.

We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our God-given and constitutional rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "wait." 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 twenty 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 six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little 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 five-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" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and when 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 knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodyness" -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.

I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. YOU express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all." Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an "I - it" relationship for the "I - thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? So I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.

Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered right to vote.

Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote, despite the fact that the Negroes constitute a majority of the population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered democratically structured? These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust. Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire.

To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. We can never forget that everything 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. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal.

If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws. I MUST make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical delvings precipitated the misguided popular mind to make him drink the hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because His unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?

 We must come to see, as federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth of time. I received a letter this morning from a white brother in Texas which said, "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but is it possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry? It has taken Christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills.

Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. YOU spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist.

I started thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodyness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and, on the other hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up over the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. This movement is nourished by the contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination. It is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incurable devil. I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need not follow the do-nothingism of the complacent or the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. There is a more excellent way, of love and nonviolent protest.

I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who are working through the channels of nonviolent direct action and refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes, out of frustration and despair, will seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, he is moving with a sense of cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand public demonstrations.

The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to get them out. So let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have sitins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history.

So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your discontent." But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized. But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist.

Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you."

Was not Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

Was not Martin Luther an extremist? -- "Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God."

 Was not John Bunyan an extremist? -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience."

Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free."

Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. Maybe I was too optimistic. Maybe I expected too much. I guess I should have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can understand or appreciate the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action.

I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some, like Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, and James Dabbs, have written about our struggle in eloquent, prophetic, and understanding terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They sat in with us at lunch counters and rode in with us on the freedom rides. They have languished in filthy roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of angry policemen who see them as "dirty nigger lovers." They, unlike many of their moderate brothers, have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

 LET me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have been disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue.

I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand this past Sunday in welcoming Negroes to your Baptist Church worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Springhill College several years ago. But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say that as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say it as a minister of the gospel who loves the church, who was nurtured in its bosom, who has been sustained by its Spiritual blessings, and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

 I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support of the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some few have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

 In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern serve as the channel through which our just grievances could get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother.

In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sidelines and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing to do with," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.

There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.

Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.

Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop.

 If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I don't believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys, if you would observe them, as they did on two occasions, refusing to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department.

It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their public handling of the demonstrators. In this sense they have been publicly "nonviolent." But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. I wish you had commended the Negro demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation.

One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose facing jeering and hostile mobs and the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity, "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested."

They will be young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience's sake. 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 our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Never before have I written a letter this long -- or should I say a book? I'm afraid that it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers? If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Copyright © 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; August 1963; The Negro Is Your Brother; Volume 212, No. 2; pages 78 - 88

Monday Morning Smile

Short video depicting the nauseating, rude, animalistic eating style of Florida's Ron Desantis.  I love watching the guy behind him