From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest)
To: joni-digest@smoe.org
Subject: JMDL Digest V4 #33
Reply-To: joni@smoe.org
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JMDL Digest Monday, January 18 1999 Volume 04 : Number 033
The Song and Album Voting Booths are open again! Cast your votes
by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery
username: jimdle password: siquomb
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The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at
http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio,
original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more.
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The JMDL website can be found at and contains
interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more.
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TOPICS and authors in this Digest:
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Martin Luther King ~ "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" [simon@icu.com]
CHIEFTAINS/SJC [Shari ]
Re: Real _Monster_ [Ginamu@aol.com]
Hold her down (NJC) [michael paz ]
Profilers (VLJC) [michael paz ]
Number One [michael paz ]
Robert Plant (was Re: Number One) NJC [Mark Domyancich ]
profiles: (vliajc) ((very little if any joni content)) and rambling [Wolf]
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Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 14:18:01 -0800
From: simon@icu.com
Subject: Martin Luther King ~ "Letter From A Birmingham Jail"
in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- ------------------------------------------------
Letter From A Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent
statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I
pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all
the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for
anything other than such correspondence 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 that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I
want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and
reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you have been
influenced by the view which argues against "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 affiliated
organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and
financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate
here in Birmingham asked 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 promise. So I, along with several
members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I
have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as
the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried
their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns,
and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I.
compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. 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 anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place In Brimingham. But your
statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the
conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you
would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that
deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is
unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is
even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro
community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the
facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification;
and direct action. We have gone through an these steps in Birmingham. There
can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community.
Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United
States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have
experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more
unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any
other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On
the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the
city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith
negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of
Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain
promises were made by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores
humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred
Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human
Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months
went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few
signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.
As in so many past experiences, our hopes bad been blasted, and the shadow
of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to
prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a
means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national
community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a
process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence,
and we repeatedly asked ourselves : "Are you able to accept blows without
retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to
schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that
except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing
that a strong economic with with-drawal program would be the by-product of
direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to
bear on the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoralty election was coming up in
March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day.
When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull"
Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-oat we decided again to
postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations
could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see
Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after
postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our
direct-action program 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 quite right in calling, for
negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a
community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront
the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be
ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the
nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am
not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension,
but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which 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 we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the
kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of
prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and
brotherhood.
The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so
crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I
therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our
beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue
rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my
associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why
didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer
that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must
be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are
sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor.
will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more
gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to
maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be
reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to
desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of
civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single
gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
Lamentably, it is an historical 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 tend to be 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 yet
to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view 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 piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We
must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too
long delayed is justice denied."
We have waited .for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given
rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward
gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace
toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for
those who have never felt the stinging dark 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 and even kill your black brothers and sisters; 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 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 ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her
little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by
developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to
concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do
white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county
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
are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever
fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" 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 the abyss of
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, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us
consciously to break laws. One may won ask: "How can you advocate breaking
some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there fire
two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the Brat to advocate obeying
just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just
laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey 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 whether
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 .law 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 distort the soul and damages the personality. It gives the
segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of
inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher
Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou"
relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence
segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically
unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is
separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic
separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that
I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is
morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for
they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust
law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority
group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made
legal. By the same token, 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. A law is unjust if it is
inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote,
had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the
legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was
democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are
used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some
counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the
population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such
circumstances be considered democratically structured?
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For
instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit.
Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit
for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to
maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of
peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to ace the distinction I am trying to point out. In no
sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid
segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law
must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I
submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is
unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to
arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality
expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It
was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to
obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was
at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were
willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks
rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree,
academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil
disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive
act of civil disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf 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.
Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have
aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist
country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed,
I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers.
First, I must confess that over the past 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 his stride toward
freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler 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 cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who
paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's
freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises
the Negro to wait for 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.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order
exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this
purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of
social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that
the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from
an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his
unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will
respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage
in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring
to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in
the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be
cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to
the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all
the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the
air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be
condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical
assertion? Isn't this like condemning a 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
inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made
him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique
God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the
evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts
have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his
efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may
precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.
I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning
time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter
from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "An Christians know that the
colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that
you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two
thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time
to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of
time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very
flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is
neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and
more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively
than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation
not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the
appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on
wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men
willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself
becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time
creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now
is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending
national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift
our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to 6e solid rock
of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At fist I was rather
disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those
of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that stand in the middle of
two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency,
made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are
so drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have
adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who,
because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some
ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of
the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes
perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various
black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the
largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by
the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial
discrimination, this movement 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 incorrigible "devil."
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate
neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of
the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and
nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the
Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our
struggle.
If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would,
I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if
our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those
of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our
nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and
despair, seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies a
development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom
eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American
Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and
something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or.
unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black
brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America
and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great
urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this
vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily
understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many
pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So
let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go
on freedom rides-and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed
emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression
through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not
said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say
that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative
outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed
extremist.
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an
extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a
measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love:
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was
not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for
the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was
not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so
help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days
before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This
nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal ..." So
the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of
extremists we viii be. We we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be
extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?
In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must
never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of
extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their
environment. The other, Jeans Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and
goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the
nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too
optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized
that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and
passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, 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
in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and
committed themselves to it. They are still too few in quantity, but they are
big in quality. Some-such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden,
James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle---have written about
our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us
down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy,
roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who
view them as "dirty nigger lovers." Unlike so many of their moderate
brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and
sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of
segregation.
Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly
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 on this past Sunday, in welcoming
Negroes to your worship service on a non segregated basis. I commend the
Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill 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 this as one of those
negative .critics who can always find. something wrong with the church. I
say this 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 Rio shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in
Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the
white church felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South
would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright
opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting
its leader era; an 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, 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, would serve as the channel through which
our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each
of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers
to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have
longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because
integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the
midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white
churchmen stand on the sideline and 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 many ministers say:
"Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I
have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly
religion which makes a strange, on Biblical distinction between body and
soul, between the sacred and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the
other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I
have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires
pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive
religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking:
"What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices
when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and
nullification? Where were they when Governor Walleye gave a clarion call for
defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and
weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of
complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?".
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have
wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been
tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep
love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather
unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great-grandson of
preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have
blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of
being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the
early Christians rejoiced at being 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 a thermostat
that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered
a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to
convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside
agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were
"a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number,
they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be
"astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an
end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.
Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak,
ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of
the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the
power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent
and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's
church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi
lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as
an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every
day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into
outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too
inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?
Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church
within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again
I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized
religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and
joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, They have left
their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with
us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for
freedom. Yes, they have gone to jai with us. Some have been dismissed from
their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers.
But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil
triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the
true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a
tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.
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 at present misunderstood. We will
reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, ham 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 America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic
words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we
were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country
without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters
while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet out of a
bottomless vitality they continued 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.
Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement
that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police
force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would
have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking
their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so
quickly commend the policemen if .you were to observe their ugly and
inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch
them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to
see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe
them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted
to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the
Birmingham police department.
It is true that the police have exercised a .degree of discipline in handing
the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather
"nonviolently" in pubic. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system
of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that
nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we
seek. I have tried to make 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
perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps
Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was
Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia but they have used the moral means of
nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot
has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed
for the wrong reason."
I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of
Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their
amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will
recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble
sense of purpose that enables them to face Jeering, and hostile mobs, and
with 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 in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense
of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who
responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her
weariness: "My fleets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They viii be the
young high school and college students, the 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' 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 what is best in the
American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian
heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy
which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid 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 can one
do when he k alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters,
think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and
indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have
said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience
that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to
forgive me.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that
circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as
an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a
Christian brother. Let us. all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice
will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from
our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the
radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with
all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 11:45:01 -0800
From: Shari
Subject: CHIEFTAINS/SJC
Someone asked about the CHIEFTAINS new album, it's
called TEARS OF STONE and is due out here 2/23. I
beat a path to the record store when I read on the
list that the album had been reviewed and thought
it had been released,
but alas, one more month for more Joni.
My apologies if this is repetitive.
Shari
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 14:57:39 EST
From: Ginamu@aol.com
Subject: Re: Real _Monster_
In a message dated 1/18/99 12:49:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, IVPAUL42@aol.com
writes:
> In a message dated 1/18/99 12:40:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> PitassiM@WEAC.org writes:
>
> <<
> "Monster is one of my favorite REM albums. I don't think I've ever read a
> review of it nor spoken with anyone about it. The lyrics are deeply
> personal,
> at times very painful. It is raw. >>
>
Hey, I though I, Gina, had written that. Hmmmm....
Gina (I think)
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 15:22:35 +0000
From: michael paz
Subject: Hold her down (NJC)
Marshaw wrote (with bloody hand);
"Marsha, who never bought a Beatle album in my life
(kill me now, Terry...)"
Hey Terry-
You hold her down and I will beat her senseless. (or is that redundant?
Marsha, so who were you into back then Herman?
Michael
P.S. Let's just tar and feather Brian
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 15:24:40 +0000
From: michael paz
Subject: Profilers (VLJC)
OK OK I'm in already. Procrastination is good though. And I reserved the
right to add a few categories. Thank you.
1. Name: Michael Paz
2. Nicknames: Mikey, Paztoy, Pazeaux, Dad
3. Original Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
4. School: Obviously not enough. USL
5. Bacon bits or croutons:+ fresh ground pepper
6. Favorite salad dressing: Roquefort
7. What do you drink: Dirty Gordon's Gin Martini's, Teas (especially
Orange Spice, Camomile, Rum n Cokes.
8. What type of deodorant do you use: See Through
9. Favorite shampoo: Whatever
10. Favorite Color(s): Aquamarine Birthstone), Lavender, Sea Green
11. One pillow or two: 2 or 3
12. Pets: 1 Fighter Fish, 2 Turtles, neighbor kids, almost a puppy.
13. Favorite Movie(s): Wizard of Oz, The Wonderful World of the
Brothers Grimm, Contact, Birdcage, Garp, Brazil, Sling Blade
14. Favorite Types of Music: Joni Mitchell, Dave Matthews, singer
songwriters, jazz, classical, BEATLES, Brazilian, too many more!
15. Hobbies: Travel, anything in the water, piano, Joni Tunings.
16. Dream Car: Full Time Driver in a stretch.
17. Type of car you drive: Chrysler Town and Country
18. Word or phrase you overuse: I REC (un) TUM SOre, Puta Mano, Shit
19. Favorite food: Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Gourmet
20. Piercings or tattoos: None that I know of
21. Do you get along with your parents: Yes always and my kids too!
22. Favorite town to chill in: Paris, Oak Ridge-Roatan, San Fransisco
Perdido-Florida, Calabash Bight-Roatan
23. Favorite ice cream: Pistachio
24. Favorite soda: Vernors Ginger Ale
25. What's your bedtime: 12 - 1 a.m.
26. Adidas, Nike, or Reebok: Chuck Taylor All Stars (low cut)
27. Favorite perfume/cologne: 4711
28. Favorite song at the moment: Love Puts On A New Face
29. Favorite website: WallyWorld.com and LesLand.com
30. Favorite subject in school: Music, English, After
31. Least favorite subject: Math
32. Favorite sport to watch: Football, Tennis
33. Craziest or silliest person you know: Tie between Kakki & Marsha
35. Favorite holiday(s): Christmas, Kings Day, Mardi Gras
36. Favorite Intrument: Piano
37. Intruments Played: Piano, Guitar, Percussion (esp. Ashara's)
38. Favorite Video: All Joni's (esp. A Day IN The Garden)
39. Favorite Books: The World According To Garp, 100 Years of
Solitude, anything by John Irving or Tom Robbins
40. Favorite Poster: Jim Lamadoo
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 15:49:07 +0000
From: michael paz
Subject: Number One
Hey Wally-(in regards to Tribute album)
How about Robert Plant doing Number One? Didn't he originally want to
do that one. Of course he does have that girlish whine to his voice so
he could be disqualified.
and I hope your feeling better,
Michael
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 15:55:45 -0600
From: Mark Domyancich
Subject: Robert Plant (was Re: Number One) NJC
Maybe back in the late '60s, when he was just starting out, but not now.
At 3:49 PM +0000 1/18/99, michael paz wrote:
> Of course he does have that girlish whine to his voice so he could
> be disqualified.
___________________________________
| Mark Domyancich |
| Harpua@revealed.net |
| http://home.revealed.net/Harpua |
| http://www.jmdl.com/guitar/mark |
|_________________________________|
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 16:07:50 +0000
From: michael paz
Subject: John Mooney (NJC)
David Mingus wrote:
"He headlined at the Boiler Room in New Orleans
for a period."
Hi David
The Boiler room is a recording studio here in New Orleans. Mooney
recorded some of his stuff there. He is more well known here at clubs
like Tipitina's, House Of Blues, Howlin Wolf, and The Maple Leaf. And
MOST TIMES as a head liner. I sam him at the boiler room the other day
and he is doing very well and recovering from a bout of bad substance
abuse. Apparently the time he spent in Fla. did him a world of good and
we are anticipating a great year from him. My friend Randy worked with
him for a long time and picked up lots of tips on technique from him.
Best wishes,
Michael
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 18:11:58 EST
From: Wolfebite@aol.com
Subject: profiles: (vliajc) ((very little if any joni content)) and rambling
in usual fashion- late on all responses... but i've loved the profiles- and
how- with each subsequent telling- a new category crops up....
so here's mine..(for those unfortunate enough to not know me...:) humble
humble humble...) although i think i filled one of these out already?
1. name: doug stapleton
2. nickname: poppy or pops, boogie or boog, douglicious, fieldmarshall
douglicious, little doug
3. birthplace: fort bragg North carolina... no hometown per se- military
brat.
4. school; many...... univ. of delaware & school of the art institute of
chitown
5. bacon bits or crotons? really neither- they cut up my mouth and salt makes
it sore... give me feta and sesame sticks on my salad.
6. favorite salad dressing: super intense garlicy creamy garlick... otherwise;
braggs amino acid & olive oil
7: what do you drink? water, followed by coffee, tea, coke, eggnog....
8.what type of deodorant do you use: speed stick
9. favorite shampoooooo: dont have one- but use infusium... but ask me about
my favorite soaps!!!!
okay, what are your favorite soaps?
10: favorite soap: GRANDPA's PINE TAR SOAP!!!! oh my god what a treat...
crabtree & evileen's Patchouli (although i hear they are dropping there men's
line!- their patchouli's one of the best...) & kiss my face patchouli (almost
as good), Abedas horse chestnut soap (smells so fresh and sweet.... heady
sweet- it's pure pamper delight- like being smothered in the bosom of a hugh
kindly grandma!) oh yeah- and GRANDMA's patchouli soap is also good- but not
as good as GRANDMA's WITCH HAZEL SOAP!!!! (like a soft summer breeze.....)
11. One pillow or two... i forgot what this was for, but I remember when we
bred our german sheperd becky, we had to stand the male dog on two pillows so
that he could get it in... you see- becky was a very big and tall dog, so the
poor fellow couldn't reach without a little lift.. reminds me of that joan
armatrading song.. "big woman and a short short man, and he loves it when she
beats his brains out.."
(i sleep with one pillow)
12. pets: currently: erzulie, queen of the cats and a ton of guppies and
snails....
13. favorite movies: funny bone, citizen kane, raising arizona, contact,
leolo, night of the shooting stars, a close shave (wallace & gromit)
14. music.... (see recent top ten)
15. hobbies: my artwork- it's my second job- very low pay- considered a hobby
by the us government... also like plants and their related activities...
reading, music listening, dancing and drinking coffee
16. dream car: one that I own and someone else pays for.... an old volvo
stationwagon.
17. type of car that i drive. my partner's subaru
18. word or phrase you overuse: don't put your lips on it... remember that
one?
19. favorite foods: delicious foods w/out mushrooms, brussel sprouts or
cabbage
20. piercings or tatoos: (1) tatoo
21. do you get along with your parents: it all relative... mom? very well-
dad? Ok!
22. favorite town to chill in: chicago... cazenovia wisc, mineapolis mn, des
moines ia, newark de, boiling springs pa, st simons island ga... mostly w/
friends or family... i usually only chill at home- when traveling- i go
nonstop til i drop!
23. favorite icecream: vanilla- the kind with the black specks in it- ( with
fresh peaches)
24. favorite soda: dog & suds root beer
25. what's your bedtime... why don't you come by and find out? :)
26. adidas, nike or reebok....adonis, nike & rebus? actually.. timberlands
and simple
27. favorite cologne.... guerlain's vetiver (too expensive though)- fendi (i
wear the woman's cologne- much richer than the man's)- plus my own concoction-
called "moody" (vetiver, sandlewood, patchouli, lemon)
28: favorite song at the moment: fire & roses from Mimi/Soak
29: favorite website: EBAY! I'm fascinated by oriental carpets! bought one
online already- persian torbat prayer rug- check the listing almost daily...
30. favorite subject in school: art
31. least favorite... math....
32. favorite sport to watch? it never occured to me to ask....
33. craziest or silliest person you know- should say knew- most are dead now
of drug overdoses or complications due to AIDS.... this is making me think
alot.. and i don't use those terms so much anymore- seems like i'm more in
search of genuine? i think i'm usually the one whose always clowning in a room
of frowns.
34. favorite holiday: HALLOWEEN (sainhaim to me)
35. favorite instrument: for cooking: my big old knife. of artmaking: my
dremel of torture: the rack of music: bagpipes (in the right context) of
mass destruction: a room clearing fart!
36. instrument; die Stuckenhoffgeflugalzimmer and recently- the dulcimer
37. favorite videos: i'm hooked on the Ab Fab series right now......
38. favorite books: mark doty's poetry still holding... recently- all of jane
hamilton.... annie dillard 'tickets for a prayer wheel', coleman/barks
translations of Rumi (robert bly's suck!), anne rice's sumptuous elitist
trash....
39. favorite poster: david wright
40. favorite article of clothing: my big gray wool sweater!!!
doug
------------------------------
End of JMDL Digest V4 #33
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Siquomb, isn't she?