Final Civil Rights reflections

As part of my post-MLK day civic engagement project, I watched Eyes on the Prize, an in-depth documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s to the beginning of the 1970s. The whole experience just left me speechless. I was amazed at how hostile the environment was that the African-Americans were trying to change, and especially at how so many people could have their rights violated and their lives ended because all they did was protest. I would say much of this shock stems largely from growing up and living in a society where contrasting expressed points of view are being more and more accepted by the day, thanks to everyone involved in this movement.

First, I cannot fathom how skin color determined one's status as an American citizen, and how the more "privileged" people could judge so easily and rashly. Martin Luther King Jr's ideas and actions were completely within US law and his US Constitutional rights as an American citizen. Yet every time he and his followers attempted to demonstrate their feelings on a particular subject, for some reason it was illegal. I mean, if a thousand Caucasians had decided to walk from Selma to Montgomery, they would not only have been allowed to walk, but they would also have been protected from traffic by the state police.

Secondly, I was a bit surprised and disappointed in the changes of the movement in the latter half of the 1960s. I must confess I didn't really know anything about the Black Panther Party, or the ideals that their followers embraced before I watched the documentary. But I was disappointed (as I suspect King had to be, at least a little bit) in the whole "Black Power" thing. The problem I had with it was that the idea still expressed division between the races, which ran counter to what I believe King was trying to accomplish. MLK believed in all people and all races coming together as one society (my interpretation of his message, anyway), and the Black Panther Party conveniently managed to forget that. While I agree with them that they needed to take some power back, since they've been suppressed as second-class citizens for so long, I oppose the racial division they seemed to support.

The other thing that bothered me was the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life" attitude that the Black Panthers embodied. I understand the frustrations that mounted as more and more African-Americans continued to get killed by the white men in power merely for protesting for their rights as American citizens. But this attitude pretty much undid what had made the Civil Rights Movement successful to date. King almost always managed to find support with the federal government, possibly largely because of the non-violent means he pushed to achieve the ends. With the Black Panthers' rise in popularity, their means soon outweighed King's means as far as the people were concerned, thus neutralizing the movement's previous successes.

While watching the series, I learned much more about King than I had ever known in my life to date. At several points, I felt like I even knew him. He wasn't as great a man as people say; he was better. What we must not forget is that there were many other leaders that helped steer this revolution. He was one of many that organized the folk to stand up for their rights, and he only had his hand in several of the individual protests, especially in the early years. It is possible that the Montgomery Bus Boycott might not have been as successful had he not taken the reins of this particular event, but other people initiated it and called on him to speak to the people.

It seemed King's influence had been in decline in the later years, at least a couple years before his death. With the rise of the Black Panther Party catering to the impatience of the folk and the desire to have power now, King's idea of non-violence as a means to an end had become less appealing. In those last years, he was caught between a revolution that was moving away from him, and his ever-present conscience on new issues that seemed to spring up everywhere he turned. This especially rang true when he had to publicly decry the Vietnam War, even though he knew it meant separation from several high-powered allies, including President Johnson. Everything took its toll on him. By the time his life ended, he had to have looked at least 10 years older than he was. And as sad as I was to watch the video chronicling everything surrounding his death, I realized that he might have been relieved not to have to deal with this anymore.

In celebrating MLK day this year, I feel President Obama got it right: treating the holiday as a day of service. King didn't care for power; I imagine he even wouldn't care so much about having his own holiday. All King wanted was equality and justice. He wanted a world where everyone would treat each other well, especially serving those in need. It took forty years, but we're finally beginning to realize that part of the dream.

Caution among optimism

As happy as I am to see yet another part of Martin Luther King's dream fulfilled this week with Obama's ascent to the presidency, I am a bit fearful as to what could possibly happen in the coming weeks and months.

I've been watching Eyes on the Prize ["http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092999/"], a documentary series about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, as part of my civic engagement for AmeriCorps. So far I've only covered four of the twelve hours that I will watch over the next week, but I am quite amazed as to how much I didn't know. According to popular belief, King was the spearhead for the whole movement. In a way he is, but he only rose to the top of the proverbial pile after he gave his famous speech, which occurred well after uprisings across the Deep South were under way. In addition to Rosa Parks' famous moment sparking a bus boycott ["http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/montbus.html"] all over Montgomery, several cases included attempts to integrate a few bright African-American students into white schools and colleges, sit-ins at restaurants, and the Freedom Riders ["http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149667"] trip through the heart of the South.

Although I was fortunate to learn that there was a decent chunk of southern whites who were alright with integration, I was reminded of the hateful acts of those who weren't: hoses, riots, bombs, lynchings. In the last five minutes of my watching tonight, I was shocked and saddened to discover that in Birmingham, AL a church--full of people, mind you--was bombed ["http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm"] less than a month after King's famous speech.  Later that same year the US President ["http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm"] would be assassinated, likewise King himself ["http://history1900s.about.com/cs/martinlutherking/a/mlkassass.htm"] five years later.

I know a lot of people who are exceedingly happy with the election of our current president. But history has shown the inevitable backlash that has happened, and I worry that our society on the whole is not as progressive as I hoped so to allay my fears of said history repeating itself.

[On a lighter note, I'm going to make my prediction for the 2008-2009 NBA Champion: Cleveland Cavaliers. I see it being like the 1991 Bulls. You read it here first.]

Yesterday and today

Participating in yesterday's events in Rochester (MN, for those of you in or from other states) reminded me why I wanted to be in AmeriCorps in the first place. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted us to serve each other and treat everyone with kindness, not too different than what I'm trying to teach my kids to do. And especially over the last couple days, I discovered that the concept of civil and human rights is pretty much the biggest thing I support--at least politically.

King called for us not only to treat people of different skin colors equally, but all kinds of people. A long time ago, I used to go to a school (and an after school program) with a high population of dark-skinned people. Not so long ago, I used to go to a church that had somewhat of a diversity of people: different races, different religious backgrounds (yes, we did), and different sexual orientations, and for the most part we were open to all of it. Growing up in these places, I was exposed to this diversity and was taught to disregard these superficial differences. As a result, I found it rather hard that anyone could have a problem with being around different kinds of people.

Over the years since my more formative days, the MLK celebration day became less and less important to me, largely because the surroundings I found myself in (especially once I started going to schools with predominantly white populations). This made yesterday even more poignant, because I was able to understand the day's purpose. It was quite an opportunity to march the streets of downtown Rochester, carrying a sign that said "Continue the Dream: Equality for the Whole World" (which I wholeheartedly believe in), and sing and chant with my fellow ralliers for freedom, justice, peace, health care, jobs, fair housing, etc.

The message stood out even more clear at the afternoon program when our keynote speaker came up and challenged us to think about how we can serve and participate in continuing the dream on a day-to-day basis. He had railed against the apathy of his generation, the one that was alive when King made his calls for equality and service to one another. He argued that they had a responsibility to educate the younger generations, the ones who had not yet been born. Their failures to teach them to stand up for right and against wrong led to the relative apathy among these younger circles, leading them to think about themselves, and undermining King's message in the process.

Today the United States of America welcomed ["http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-extra-obama-mainbarjan20,0,1796315.story"] its 44th president. Technically Barack Obama was inaugurated, but I say welcomed because it seems he's the leader many people say they've been clamoring for. I hope so. I've been following ["http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-know-who-im-voting-for.html"] him ever since he declared ["http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-070210obama-pearson1-story,0,3768114.story"] his intent to run for the presidency. I liked him for president because he was a breath of fresh air, and he and I shared the same stances on some of the bigger issues for me (equality for all people, service, community). I liked him because he was different from all the other candidates who pretty much existed to serve only themselves or their party.

I'm not completely jumping up and down, though. While I'm glad the page is turning, there is still plenty of work to be done, and whatever "change" is promised will take time. It might take more than four years. Heck, there's a good chance some of it will. But it will only really work if the people are involved. We voted for the man; now we have to share the burden and get to work, too.

Starting out with a bang

I'm back in Northfield, albeit stumbling and staggering a bit.

While my 2-week break was just the thing I needed to recharge my batteries for the next several months, it seems like long ago. While I was driving back a couple days ago, I found an opportunity to learn a few things the hard way:

1.) When the road gets icy, shift into 4-wheel drive and slow down, even more than you think you need do do. Even if it means going 30 mph (and not 50) on the interstate.

2.) When the tow truck guy tells you to get your vehicle off the road, do it immediately.

3.) When the tow truck guy tells you to get off the road and check into a motel for the night, do that. (Oh wait, I learned that the easy way. By this point I wasn't going to screw around anymore.)

I hate winter.

On the sunny side, I showed my friend how to tune a piano, and I got some more of my improvisations recorded (both while I was still in Chicago). I also got to go to my first NFL game and my first playoff game (Vikings vs. Eagles), and I finally got around to taking care of some work for AmeriCorps that I hadn't been able to get to earlier.

New Years' resolutions? Get older and wiser. Life resolutions? See the previous lists of said resolutions.