1.
Fifty years ago, one of the greatest Americans gave one of the greatest American speeches ever, on the mall in Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech is a truly remarkable combination of righteous moral fervor and rhetorical skill. Decent people everywhere are inspired to make his speech of historical interest only, that is, by making his dream the present reality. This, as we all unfortunately know, despite remarkable racial progress, remains a dream.
One of the striking aspects of King's speech is its moral fervor. He was black and felt first-hand the gratuitous indignities inflicted on his people by the rampant racism of his time; combating racism was obviously close to his heart. In his speech, however, it clearly comes across that he was interested in justice with a capital J. His thirst for divine justice would not be quenched by any draft of mere self-interest. Dr. King was motivated by "truth force," an English translation of the Gandhian satyagraha. The soul of truth force has no color. It is a tribute to Dr. King's universalism that one can easily imagine this soul force giving the same speech, word for word, translated into words from the light within us all. One can give no greater compliment than that.
Racism was--and is--horrible; he needed to address and help remedy this great evil, and his great speech was a giant step in that direction. I have the distinct impression, however, that if full racial equality was effected by divine fiat in 1963, Dr. King would have been overjoyed for a while but not ultimately satisfied. Unjust wars, unjust wages and the great injustices of unemployment and the lack of universal health care would have driven him to work harder than ever to combat great lies, the opposite of truth force. I heard a commentator reply, when asked why Dr. King opposed the Vietnam War, that it was because many blacks were dying in combat. I cannot believe that this is the whole truth! He opposed the war because he passionately believed that it was causing unnecessary deaths of people of all races.
At the end of his life he was preparing a march on Chicago to demand that America's downtrodden poor be treated more fairly. I remember thinking at the time that segregation was such a moral outrage that decent people could no longer look the other way. We were ready for some change. But hordes of poor people demanding justice--it was quite possible that Dr. King could have accomplished this--America wasn't for that then, and is perhaps even less so now. Rich folks, they're going to kill him, I remember thinking. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that's what I thought; in any case, I do not doubt that some breathed a sigh of relief when the great man was silenced.
Yes, you can kill an avatar of soul force; no, you can never kill soul force itself. The light inside us still has the dream that it will not be a pale light forever but will one day shine on who we are and all we do.
Rest in peace, Dr. King, we miss you.
2.
Criticizing a small section of the speech makes me feel a little like a little doggie following the Kenilworth Knights, the drum and bugle band that led the march on Washington. but I think the point to be made is important. It is in no way meant to diminish the great man's legacy; I am quite sure that he, once he heard my argument, would agree. The distinction I make runs so contrary to popular thinking, that it is quite understandable that Dr. King didn't consider it. His theme, after all, was racial justice, not an important aspect of wisdom that would strike most of his listeners as counter-intuitive.
Sometimes I no longer feel like that little doggie, but like the drum major who led the procession. For my criticism is based on the teachings of a man much greater than the great Dr. King, namely Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the sentence of the speech I believe contains a moral error:
I have a dream that my four children will 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.
One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is "Judge not less ye be judged." We are of course not only permitted to judge a person's behavior, but morality, primarily for the protection of others, demands that we do so. Jesus certainly judged the behavior of some of his contemporaries! Judging a person, however, is always morally wrong. If someone behaves badly, the proper response is always, "There but for the grace of God go I."
We can prove this by a thought experiment. Dr. King grew to be a moral leader of immense stature. But what if he never had experienced love from his mother and from other family members? What if he had never been mentored by teachers who took interest in him? What if he never had been nurtured by the church, etc. What if he had been severely neglected and abused? What if he had been locked in the cellar by an insane parent for years? Dr. King would most likely have turned out to be what person-judgers would consider to be an abject failure. Would this be his fault? Are we to judge him because of wounds inflicted on him by others?
Consciousness, motivation, free will, character and mood--the roots of these are so mysterious that we are not even able to judge ourselves, much less to judge others. Nature's mysterious manipulations and the varieties of environment can turn one identical twin to a life of crime while his identical twin turns toward a life full of love and compassion.
This is not a minor point. I've heard TV commentators fume about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the nineteen year old who committed a terrible crime with his brother in Boston. He is a monster, they shouted, and never should be thought of as a human being. I am fully convinced, however, that with the right environment of love and support he would have most likely turned out to be a model citizen.
No, this is not a minor point, for if we stop judging others, the humiliation and anger that arise from our judgments would cease, preventing a lot of bad behavior. I am convinced that self-hate is at the root of most of the hatred of others. And the result of this hatred/self-hatred is often evil deeds.
Christians are taught to see Christ in everybody, no exceptions. Zen teaches that there is a pearl of complete enlightenment shining in us all. It is very true that many betray the Christ within and bury the pearl of perfection in the mud of greed, hate and delusion. However, if we believe that what Christians call Christ is in all us; if we believe with the Quakers that the light shines in everybody; if we believe with the Zen Buddhists that the pearl inside cannot be sullied--and I admit to being convinced of all these things--each must respond when asked to reject a person who has committed bad deeds, with the words recently used by the current pope, "Who am I to judge?"
Even Kings nod. Nobody's perfect. More than just about all of us, however, Dr. King spent his waking hours morally fit and extraordinarily alert.
I repeat: Rest in Peace, Dr. King, we miss you.
Fifty years ago, one of the greatest Americans gave one of the greatest American speeches ever, on the mall in Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech is a truly remarkable combination of righteous moral fervor and rhetorical skill. Decent people everywhere are inspired to make his speech of historical interest only, that is, by making his dream the present reality. This, as we all unfortunately know, despite remarkable racial progress, remains a dream.
One of the striking aspects of King's speech is its moral fervor. He was black and felt first-hand the gratuitous indignities inflicted on his people by the rampant racism of his time; combating racism was obviously close to his heart. In his speech, however, it clearly comes across that he was interested in justice with a capital J. His thirst for divine justice would not be quenched by any draft of mere self-interest. Dr. King was motivated by "truth force," an English translation of the Gandhian satyagraha. The soul of truth force has no color. It is a tribute to Dr. King's universalism that one can easily imagine this soul force giving the same speech, word for word, translated into words from the light within us all. One can give no greater compliment than that.
Racism was--and is--horrible; he needed to address and help remedy this great evil, and his great speech was a giant step in that direction. I have the distinct impression, however, that if full racial equality was effected by divine fiat in 1963, Dr. King would have been overjoyed for a while but not ultimately satisfied. Unjust wars, unjust wages and the great injustices of unemployment and the lack of universal health care would have driven him to work harder than ever to combat great lies, the opposite of truth force. I heard a commentator reply, when asked why Dr. King opposed the Vietnam War, that it was because many blacks were dying in combat. I cannot believe that this is the whole truth! He opposed the war because he passionately believed that it was causing unnecessary deaths of people of all races.
At the end of his life he was preparing a march on Chicago to demand that America's downtrodden poor be treated more fairly. I remember thinking at the time that segregation was such a moral outrage that decent people could no longer look the other way. We were ready for some change. But hordes of poor people demanding justice--it was quite possible that Dr. King could have accomplished this--America wasn't for that then, and is perhaps even less so now. Rich folks, they're going to kill him, I remember thinking. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that's what I thought; in any case, I do not doubt that some breathed a sigh of relief when the great man was silenced.
Yes, you can kill an avatar of soul force; no, you can never kill soul force itself. The light inside us still has the dream that it will not be a pale light forever but will one day shine on who we are and all we do.
Rest in peace, Dr. King, we miss you.
2.
Criticizing a small section of the speech makes me feel a little like a little doggie following the Kenilworth Knights, the drum and bugle band that led the march on Washington. but I think the point to be made is important. It is in no way meant to diminish the great man's legacy; I am quite sure that he, once he heard my argument, would agree. The distinction I make runs so contrary to popular thinking, that it is quite understandable that Dr. King didn't consider it. His theme, after all, was racial justice, not an important aspect of wisdom that would strike most of his listeners as counter-intuitive.
Sometimes I no longer feel like that little doggie, but like the drum major who led the procession. For my criticism is based on the teachings of a man much greater than the great Dr. King, namely Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the sentence of the speech I believe contains a moral error:
I have a dream that my four children will 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.
One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is "Judge not less ye be judged." We are of course not only permitted to judge a person's behavior, but morality, primarily for the protection of others, demands that we do so. Jesus certainly judged the behavior of some of his contemporaries! Judging a person, however, is always morally wrong. If someone behaves badly, the proper response is always, "There but for the grace of God go I."
We can prove this by a thought experiment. Dr. King grew to be a moral leader of immense stature. But what if he never had experienced love from his mother and from other family members? What if he had never been mentored by teachers who took interest in him? What if he never had been nurtured by the church, etc. What if he had been severely neglected and abused? What if he had been locked in the cellar by an insane parent for years? Dr. King would most likely have turned out to be what person-judgers would consider to be an abject failure. Would this be his fault? Are we to judge him because of wounds inflicted on him by others?
Consciousness, motivation, free will, character and mood--the roots of these are so mysterious that we are not even able to judge ourselves, much less to judge others. Nature's mysterious manipulations and the varieties of environment can turn one identical twin to a life of crime while his identical twin turns toward a life full of love and compassion.
This is not a minor point. I've heard TV commentators fume about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the nineteen year old who committed a terrible crime with his brother in Boston. He is a monster, they shouted, and never should be thought of as a human being. I am fully convinced, however, that with the right environment of love and support he would have most likely turned out to be a model citizen.
No, this is not a minor point, for if we stop judging others, the humiliation and anger that arise from our judgments would cease, preventing a lot of bad behavior. I am convinced that self-hate is at the root of most of the hatred of others. And the result of this hatred/self-hatred is often evil deeds.
Christians are taught to see Christ in everybody, no exceptions. Zen teaches that there is a pearl of complete enlightenment shining in us all. It is very true that many betray the Christ within and bury the pearl of perfection in the mud of greed, hate and delusion. However, if we believe that what Christians call Christ is in all us; if we believe with the Quakers that the light shines in everybody; if we believe with the Zen Buddhists that the pearl inside cannot be sullied--and I admit to being convinced of all these things--each must respond when asked to reject a person who has committed bad deeds, with the words recently used by the current pope, "Who am I to judge?"
Even Kings nod. Nobody's perfect. More than just about all of us, however, Dr. King spent his waking hours morally fit and extraordinarily alert.
I repeat: Rest in Peace, Dr. King, we miss you.
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