Thinking MLK

Posted by BooMan | Jan 18, 2008 | 16 |

Something supernatural was going on this day. He seemed to know that he didn’t have long to live.

And look at how he almost collapses at the end. This episode in history has always reminded me of the arrest of Jesus, who knew his fate but did not resist it. From Matthew:

47While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

50Jesus replied, “Friend, do what you came for.”[d]

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

52″Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

55At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

Please find some way to honor this man during this week. MLK Day should not be a day off but a day on.

Update [2008-1-18 14:17:51 by BooMan]: You can find a way to honor King at the Day of Service site.

About The Author

BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.

16 Comments

ignorant bystander on January 18, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Can’t see the video from here, but I’ll bet I know what it is.

I may not get there with you, but I have seen the Promised Land.

I’ve always thought he knew what was coming. He may not have known when or who or how, but he knew he didn’t have a lot of time left. Such courage is the rarest commodity in this world.
- BooMan on January 18, 2008 at 12:41 pm
  
  Rarely, if ever, has a transcript done less justice to a speech, but here it is.
  
  And they were telling me, now it doesn’t matter now. It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”
  
  And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
  
  Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
- MikeInOhio on January 18, 2008 at 12:45 pm
  
  I can’t see the video at work either but you’re probably right about what it is.
  
  I’ve got to say that every time I listen to this or watch it, I can’t help but have a wave of emotion come over me. The strength and courage that emanates from his words are some of the most inspirational that have ever been uttered. Anytime I hear anything said in an attempt to disparage his legacy, the words he uttered here come to my mind.
MikeInOhio on January 18, 2008 at 12:33 pm

I just realized the other evening, when I was poking around You Tube, that I had never watched, in its entirety, Kings speech at the National Mall in Washington in August 1963. There’s probably not anyone living in the country that has not seen the most famous sound bites from this speech. But how many of us have actually listened to it all?

If you haven’t, please do it. The video can be found here.

Don’t just watch it passively. Really listen to what he is saying. Think about everything that came after this speech. With this country again embroiled in a discussion about race I think it is important that we look to history for some lessons.

It is truly inspirational.
- ignorant bystander on January 18, 2008 at 12:45 pm
  
  I’m not sure if I’ve actually seen the whole thing. I know I’ve seen more than sound bites. That has to be one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century. If you can watch the whole thing and not be moved, you have a heart of stone.
  - MikeInOhio on January 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm
    
    I have to say I couldn’t help but have tears while watching and listening to it. If his words don’t pierce your soul, I have to question ones humanity.
fabooj on January 18, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Tell me what’s happening…I can’t ever read or hear about that part of the Bible without thinking of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Yeah, MLKs speeches laid the groundwork for his death. That’s not good phrasing…He prepped the people. He was telling them, “I’m not going to be here much longer and you gotta move on.” In school, we had watched all the speeches he gave his last year, ending (of course) with this one. In my grandmother’s bible for that year, she had written out this speech and next to the part where this video starts, she wrote (Is he dying? Assassination?). She said, everyone expected it and in hindsight it was like he had prepped them for it.
- BooMan on January 18, 2008 at 12:47 pm
  
  Watching that speech has always been one of the saddest things, but there is something metaphysical about it. Martyrdom follows a certain script, in Jesus’ case self-consciously so.
  
  “But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
  
  The same with Socrates, who had the opportunity to accept exile, or escape, and refused.
  
  And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended at them. For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure, to the judges who have condemned me.
  
  Friends, who would have acquitted me, I would like also to talk with you about this thing which has happened, while the magistrates are busy, and before I go to the place at which I must die. Stay then awhile, for we may as well talk with one another while there is time. You are my friends, and I should like to show you the meaning of this event which has happened to me. O my judges – for you I may truly call judges – I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance. Hitherto the familiar oracle within me has constantly been in the habit of opposing me even about trifles, if I was going to make a slip or error about anything; and now as you see there has come upon me that which may be thought, and is generally believed to be, the last and worst evil. But the oracle made no sign of opposition, either as I was leaving my house and going out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court, or while I was speaking, at anything which I was going to say; and yet I have often been stopped in the middle of a speech; but now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter has the oracle opposed me. What do I take to be the explanation of this? I will tell you. I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good, and that those of us who think that death is an evil are in error. This is a great proof to me of what I am saying, for the customary sign would surely have opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good.
  
  Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: – either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again. I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old, who have suffered death through an unjust judgment; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs. Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition; or Odysseus or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too! What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions! For in that world they do not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.
  
  Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth – that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; they have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
  
  Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, – then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.
  
  The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways – I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.
  
  King’s speech fits so perfectly into this genre that it almost defies reason.
atticus on January 18, 2008 at 12:51 pm

We are blessed to have grown up witnessing such a man of courage in the world. Now it’s our turn to show the same example to our young people.
librarylil on January 18, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Thank you Booman for posting this reminder. Just reading the transcript is almost overwhelming. Honestly I had forgotten MLK Day is next week. I just came back from giving my daughter a ride to the African American Art and Culture Complex in my town where there is a day-long “youth speaks” event. So she is paying attention, and I’ll have to find a way to follow suit.

Where is a leader now with the fire and eloquence and authority of King? Maybe among the youth.
RandyH on January 18, 2008 at 1:07 pm

How long was it after this speech that he was killed? Anyone know what day this speech was given?
- BooMan on January 18, 2008 at 1:13 pm
  
  He gave the speech on April 3rd and was killed on April 4th.
  - RandyH on January 18, 2008 at 1:17 pm
    
    Wow. He really did know what was coming. I’ve never seen this speech before. It is startling.
Brendan Skwire on January 18, 2008 at 1:18 pm

Mr. Booman, please add this this link in an update. It goes to the Martin Luther King Day of Service site, where volunteers can sign up for activities.

I’ll be spending the early part of the day (8:45 AM) in Germantown picking up exercise equipment for babies living in a homeless shelter run by my employer, and then spending the rest of the day at said shelter painting, cleaning, and doing whatever is necessary.

I highly recommned the Day of Service to all your readers: last year i helped run a food cupboard in a church located in a low-income neighborhood. It’s a very fulfilling feeling. As MLK said “everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”

We need more Dr. Kings today.
- AP on January 18, 2008 at 2:02 pm
  
  I’ve seen and read this speech a million times, but I still get chills…Lord, I get chills.
  
  But to piggy back on Brendan’s sentiments, definitely go out and make Monday a day of service. So many folks need your help!
  
  I’m helping to prepare 500 bag lunches for our homeless brothers and sisters.
Oscar In Dallas on January 18, 2008 at 6:35 pm

So much has changed since then; so much is still the same…

The other day I was saying, I always try to do a little converting when I’m in jail. And when we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens and all enjoyed coming around the cell to talk about the race problem. And they were showing us where we were so wrong demonstrating. And they were showing us where segregation was so right. And they were showing us where intermarriage was so wrong. So I would get to preaching, and we would get to talking–calmly, because they wanted to talk about it. And then we got down one day to the point–that was the second or third day–to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, “Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. [laughter] You’re just as poor as Negroes.” And I said, “You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white. And you’re so poor you can’t send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march.”

Now that’s a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, (Make it plain) he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white–and can’t hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out. (Amen)

And not only does this thing go into the racial struggle, it goes into the struggle between nations. And I would submit to you this morning that what is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy. And if something doesn’t happen to stop this trend, I’m sorely afraid that we won’t be here to talk about Jesus Christ and about God and about brotherhood too many more years. (Yeah) If somebody doesn’t bring an end to this suicidal thrust that we see in the world today, none of us are going to be around, because somebody’s going to make the mistake through our senseless blunderings of dropping a nuclear bomb somewhere. And then another one is going to drop. And don’t let anybody fool you, this can happen within a matter of seconds. (Amen) They have twenty-megaton bombs in Russia right now that can destroy a city as big as New York in three seconds, with everybody wiped away, and every building. And we can do the same thing to Russia and China.

But this is why we are drifting. And we are drifting there because nations are caught up with the drum major instinct. “I must be first.” “I must be supreme.” “Our nation must rule the world.” (Preach it) And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.

God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. (Preach it, preach it) God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.

I’m afraid that The Drum Major Instinct is still alive and well today, unfortunately.

Thinking MLK

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