Dr. Martin Luther King’s letter from Birmingham jail
is one piece of literature that is eye opening for those at that time and even today, and
can be applied to the social issues going on today. My personal opinion on this letter is that
most of it was probably necessary in order to make the statement as strong as
it was. Dr. King says he could’ve
written it in a shorter letter if he wasn’t in jail, but because of the length
and detail the letter goes into, it made it that much stronger. He uses vivid descriptions of the injustice in
the southern communities, most of which the white clergymen did not have to go
through and suffer. His comparison of
justice and injustice in the times of the Holocaust was brilliant because no
one with a heart can deny that the genocide of millions of Jews was morally
just. He also ties his title as an
extremist to past people like Jesus and Martin Luther and Thomas Jefferson and
Abraham Lincoln. At first he is hesitant, but all progression came from someone
being an extremist. But the thing that hit
me most was the fact that Dr. King states the quality of the white supporters
is few, but “they are big in quality.”
Just as anything in life, it’s not always about the numbers; it is about
the quality of the numbers. The most
important thing though is that people get involved. Like Dr. King states, “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.” Ignorance and the will to do nothing are
worse than opposition in the view of Dr. King because you are allowing
something to happen. I totally agree
with him because just as the Germans didn’t stand up against Hitler, you don’t
actively participate, but indirectly participate in the injustice.
No comments:
Post a Comment