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Books by Martin Luther
King, Jr.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Strength to Love /
The Measure of a Man /
Why We Can't Wait
A Testament of Hope /
A Knock at Midnight /
The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., 1948-1963
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community /
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
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Books by James
Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs
Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century
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The
American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker's
Notebook
Living for Change: An Autobiography
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Conversations in Maine: Exploring Our Nation's Future
Manifesto for a Black Revolutionary Party
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Racism and the Class Struggle
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The Fierce Urgency of Now
Martin Luther King Birthday Celebration 2008
By Grace Lee Boggs
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Now, it should be
incandescently clear that no one who has any
concern for the integrity and life of
America today can ignore the present war. If
America's soul becomes totally poisoned,
part of the autopsy must read: Vietnam. It
can never be saved so long as it destroys
the deepest hopes of men the world over. So
it is that those of us who are yet
determined that America will be are led down
the path of protest and dissent, working for
the health of our land.
This I believe to be the
privilege and the burden of all of us who
deem ourselves bound by allegiances and
loyalties which are broader and deeper than
nationalism and which go beyond our nation's
self-defined goals and positions. We are
called to speak for the weak, for the
voiceless, for the victims of our nation and
for those it calls "enemy," for no document
from human hands can make these humans any
less our brothers. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. "A
Time to Break Silence." April 4,
1967. |
We are living in a
time of great peril and possibility. In 1957, with the
Montgomery bus boycott, we embarked on a journey that
enlarged the soul of America. We found the courage to
question what kind of people we were and the wisdom to
change ourselves into a people offering new hope in the
world. The struggles of African Americans for full
citizenship and dignity inspired more than a half
century of progressive movements in the United States
and around the world. People long denied and
disrespected found their voices in the struggle for
citizenship and dignity.
Today we no longer inspire hope in those who have been
despised, displaced, and devalued. Instead, we inspire
fear, terror, and division. More than 40 years ago, Dr.
King warned that unless we engaged in a great revolution
of values and overcome racism, materialism and
militarism, we would be “dragged down the long, dark,
and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who
possess power without compassion, might without
morality, and strength without sight.”
Now, we face a constitutional crisis brought on by the
imperial and arrogant acts of a president who has placed
himself above the law, is conducting an illegal war,
subverting the constitution, and willfully ignoring a
planetary crisis that threatens the future of life on
earth. Manipulated by fear and distrust, despair
overcomes decency. We are losing faith in our capacity
to create the world anew.
Most of us were not among the few who founded this
nation more than 200 years ago and who established the
political, economic and social patterns that have
brought us to this present crisis. But none of us can
step back from the responsibility of becoming part of
the solution. Because of the struggles of working people
in factories and on farms, African Americans, women,
Chicanos, Native Americans and immigrants, gay people,
youth and the disabled, all of us have a new “burden and
responsibility.” All of us have the opportunity to
engage in the process of creating a new, more human,
more socially conscious, and ecologically responsible
nation.
In an equally dark and perilous time, Dr King challenged
us to move beyond fear, complacency and indecisions. On
a warm night in April, more than 40 years ago he said:
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We are now faced with the
fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.
We are confronted with the fierce urgency of
now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and
history, there is such a thing as being too
late. Procrastination is still the thief of
time. Life often leaves us standing bare,
naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity.
The tide in the affairs of men does not
remain at flood—it ebbs. We may cry out
desperately for time to pause in her
passage, but time is adamant to every plea
and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and
jumbled residues of numerous civilizations
are written the pathetic words, "Too late."
There is an invisible book of life that
faithfully records our vigilance or our
neglect. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving
finger writes, and having writ moves on. We
still have a choice today: nonviolent
coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We
must move past indecision to action.” |
This year, as we
celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
and commemorate the last year of his life, we encourage
you to consider his deepest call to the generations to
come:
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Now let us rededicate
ourselves to the long and bitter, but
beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is
the calling of the sons of God, and our
brothers wait eagerly for our response.
Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall
we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will
our message be that the forces of American
life militate against their arrival as full
men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or
will there be another message -- of longing,
of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings,
of commitment to their cause, whatever the
cost? The choice is ours, and though we
might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in
this crucial moment of human history. |
As we gather to
celebrate his life, let us look at the urgency of now:
Let us find the courage to confront the questions:
On Peace and War: How can we begin to create
peace amidst this war? How do we restore relationships
of respect and integrity within the community of
nations?
On sustainable living: How do we live more simply
so that others may simply live?
On immigration: What do we need to do to protect
our brothers and sisters from other lands, who have come
to find the promise of America and found the terror of
deportation and raids in the night?
On healthy
communities: How do we become engaged in our
communities to create and restore ways of living that
encourage the imagination and productive capacities of
our young people?
On justice: How do we guarantee that all of us
have the basic human right to education, the sustenance
of live, and respect for our work?
Dr. King had faith that if we confronted the questions
of our time, honestly, together we would create an
America we could all be proud to call our own.
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And if we will only make
the right choice, we will be able to
transform this pending cosmic elegy into a
creative psalm of peace. If we will make the
right choice, we will be able to transform
the jangling discords of our world into a
beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we
will but make the right choice, we will be
able to speed up the day, all over America
and all over the world, when justice will
roll down like waters, and righteousness
like a mighty stream |
We call on all
those who read these words to join with those around you
to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday this year
with his sense of urgency.
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Initiating Signers:
Grace Lee Boggs (Boggs Center to Nurture Community
Leadership); Rachel Harding (Veterans of Hope); Shea
Howell (Detroit Summer); ope)Rev. Nelson Johnson
(Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, N. C.); John
Maguire (Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project
Change); Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez (Tewa Women United);
Shirley Strong (Institute for Democratic Renewal/Project
Change). www.belovedcommunitiesnet.org
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posted 14 January 2008 |
