"LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL" (and how it relates to Terri)

The King Center ^ | April 16, 1963 | Martin Luther King Jr.

[Tribune7]

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling present activities "unwise and untimely."

(snip)

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails so express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.

(snip)

One may ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first 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.

(snip)

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."

(snip)

Was not Jesus and 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 am 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 all men are created equal . . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?

(snip)

So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are.

(snip)

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Tribune7]

Here's the link to the whole thing

[Tribune7]

ping

[Tribune7]

ping

[expatguy]

Civil Disobedience and our Duty as Americans

[Travis McGee]

Great and timely post!

[wagglebee]

From the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, . . . But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The judiciary is completely out-of-control, and it is the duty of the executive and legislative branches to remedy this situation in order to preserve liberty.

[Zechariah_8_13]

bttt! thanks.

[grassboots.org]

For those who have read this before, we needed to hear it again. For those who have never read it - it is eye opening.

[macamadamia]

MLK's letter and the Dred Scott case certainly provide an interesting context.

Its oddly and sadly fitting that Schiavo (skee A vo) is Italian for "slave."

[mtbopfuyn]

Jeb should read this sometime - soon.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

Its oddly and sadly fitting that Schiavo (skee A vo) is Italian for "slave."

I just looked it up on Babelfish and you're exactly right. It's certainly true that Terri became a slave after marrying & adopting the name Schiavo.

[macamadamia]

"It's certainly true that Terri became a slave after marrying & adopting the name Schiavo."


Well said. The symbolism runs deep.

[FBD]

"...And the judge said "remove it" in a make-believe trial
And slapped lawyer Felos on the back with a smile
Said' supper's waitin' at home and I gotta get to it"

That's the night a woman’s rights went out in Florida
That's the night that they starved an innocent woman.
Well, don't trust your soul to no Florida hospice lawyer
'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands..."

http://www.rense.com/general63/retiredsheriffspeaks.htm
(victim of spousal abuse, murder victim Helene Ball McGee was denied protection by Judge Greer)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1371060/posts
("Judge Greer Got Donation From Mike Schiavo's Lawyer")

[syriacus]

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal."

I agree the letter is applicable and I've been putting a link to King's letter in some of my posts on FreeRepublic.in the the past week.

And the following sentence from the letter is applicable, too.

It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany

[dawn53]

This is one of my favorite pieces of "literature."

I think it should be a must read for every high school student.

[Earthdweller]

Terri Schiavo Before dehydration

God Bless you Terri in your hour of death

Let everyone who said your beautiful smile was fake be haunted by it for the rest of their days.

[Tribune7]

I think it should be a must read for every high school student.

You think the ACLU would sue?

[Travis McGee]

BTTT!

[TAdams8591]

Agreed. And once again they failed miserably!

[don-o]

That takes me back. George Wallce stood in the "school house door" symbolically defying the federal power to integrate the University of Alababma.

He did that out of deeply held principles. Yet, later in his life, came to understand that he had been wrong, and said so.

MLK was a man with the faults and failures that men have - but, he espoused bedrock principles that turned the nation onto a better road, with a minimum of turmoil.

Pity, that ones like him come along so rarely.

And more the pity, that his "legacy" is co-opted by poverty pimps and race hustlers.