Letter from the Birmingham Jail--Dr. ML King

[perezoso]

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html

"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."

[Axanderdeath]

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html


"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."

So your saying that no matter how we try that the minority is alwaysgoing to be shit on. sure. i think that is true. But what do you suggest? If any thing...

[hester_prynne]

I'm so glad you posted this today, being as it is MLK day.

His points are all the obvious, and make me even more painfully aware of how injust and fearful the society we live in is.

The small, quiet voice of justice barely heard within the bellows of greed, pomp, and infantile egos.

He sure as hell got voted out eh?
Sigh.

Thanks again for posting this link Perezee.
I hope everyone gives it a good read today, in honor of the great, man, Dr. Martin Luther King. May we all care about justice as much as he did.

H

[perezoso]

Thanks. To be honest I don't agree with everything Dr. King wrote, said, or did, but in this essay he puts forth his points reasonably and, dare I say, eloquently. And the passion is evident too--I guess if you'd been sprayed with firehoses, tailed by the Klan, and attacked by police dogs you might have some passion too.

His ideas follow in the tradition of Socrates and Thoreau, and the best of the liberal theologians. Too bad more people--whether caucasian, black, hispanic, etc,-- don't read him.

[bohonato]

I remember reading this sophmore year in high school, after Civil Disobedience. I enjoyed it, Dr. King is indeed a great writer (and speaker). Too bad the majority of the class was worried about the football game and who they were screwing.

[judih]

you can bring a human being to truth but you can't make him/her understand

isn't that the old epithet?

you could have buddha, gandhi and jesus dancing in mid-air (matisse would be there to paint it) but you couldn't make human beings see.

wave love over a busy crowd and see how much gets grabbed.

Still, you need an MLK and a conscious soul to spread the word after his death in order to keep the spirit of compassion alive.

[perezoso]

You can bring a horticulture, but can't make it think....

ML King was writing with a logic and fire similiar to what Thoreau did in Civil Disobedience; his image--or what is taken to be his image-- has taken over the actual message and ideas presented in his writing.