Martin Luther King - What he really stood for.

jmurtari@akidsright.org

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Good People & People of Faith,

When I hear people talk about Martin Luther King they often say, "he 
showed us we need to fight for Civil Rights."  I wonder what they are 
talking about.  The concepts of Civil Rights and Human Rights were well 
known before him.  There had been plenty of "fights."

The strength of his message was the "how."  Faith in a loving God and 
the willingness to demonstrate your belief in your 'right' by voluntary 
personal peaceful sacrifice.  He wasn't perfect.  He was a married man 
who got involved with woman on the road.  But he kept trying.

Faith in God and treating the people who are holding you down with 
common courtesy -- popular now?

*Martin Luther King's Actions *

  If you are serious about social reform, take the time to read an 
outstanding Biography on King, "Let the Trumpet Sound" by Steven Oates.  
King is neither a Saint or a Devil, but someone struggling for reform, 
with successes and failures.  We can all learn from his efforts and his 
attitude.  When we spend our time in anger, or as a victim, or 
criticizing the 'other' side (moms or dads) -- reform doesn't come any 
closer.

When we are inspired by the ideal that we have a basic Civil Right to be 
"Fit & Equal" parents in the life of the children we love -- we move 
forward. http://www.AKidsRIght.Org/approach.htm

*What he really proved? *

Most of us have heard sound bites about how he should inspire us to work 
for peace and justice.  Did we miss the point of what was so unique in 
what he did?  For many of us "working for peace and justice" consists of 
talking and writing about it?

If King demonstrated anything, it was that the combination of Faith, 
Love, and Personal Sacrifice (NonViolent Action) can make significant 
social reform happen.  I didn't hear a lot about that?

Sometimes people think "Sacrifice" is the anguish they went through when 
a Court separated them from their children, maybe the pain they felt the 
first evening they spent in a home away from their kids? Some of us 
think of "Love" and think of the love we have for our kids -- but 
PLEASE, don't ask me to love my former spouse or the Judge, lawyer, or 
social worker!  And "Faith" ... what do you think it means now?

Please, if you have never done so, read some of the excerpts from the 
lives of King and Gandhi we have at the site, 
http://www.AKidsRight.Org/civil_back.htm

* Sacrifice, Faith & Love*

Perhaps some of us think 'this is America' -- when your rights are 
violated you sue someone in Court, get a 'book deal', go on 'Good 
Morning America', and make a million bucks!  Tell that to the many poor 
blacks who followed King and sought equality, or the Indians who 
followed Gandhi in a struggle for independence.  Many were killed and we 
don't even know their names!

Sacrifice is what we voluntarily surrender -- with no sure hope of 
achieving a goal. Hopefully, many of us know that King carried the title 
"Doctor", not because he was a physician, but a Baptist Minister -- who 
tried to have Faith in a Loving and Personal God, not a philosophical 
construct.  You had to have Faith to make that type of Sacrifice. He 
could separate the disapproval he felt for the actions of the "whites", 
while still acknowledging they were his brothers and sisters and worthy 
of not only God's love, but his love.

*A Real Inspiration*

Probably the biggest comfort we should draw from the lesson of 
segregation is that serious and fundamental change is possible. Many of 
us can't even imagine forcing a black to sit in the back of the bus, or 
drink from a different water fountain, or use a different bathroom.  But 
back in 1950 -- that was how it was and a lot of people, including many 
educated blacks and whites, thought it would never change!

Unfortunately, many of us as parents get excited about reform, but after 
a few years we become 'more practical' -- it often happens that 
leadership gives up on the "big goal" as just not possible.  We no 
longer believe.  Sorry, but when we hear people set their goals on a 
"rebuttable presumption of joint custody" or "more oversight and 
training for Child Protective services staff" -- have we surrendered? 
When we actually begin to think that the State of Alabama has the power 
to license our children to us?  Or that we need to "ask" a Judge to 
restore to us our most basic human right?

What did King demonstrate?  That with real Faith, real Love, and real 
Sacrifice, real miracles can happen.  But you have to "believe", you 
have to "act," and then noble dreams take on flesh and become reality.

-- 

                                        John Murtari
____________________________________________________________________

Coordinator                            AKidsRight.Org
jmurtari@AKidsRight.Org                "A Kid's Right to BOTH parents"
Toll Free (315) 944-0999(x-211)        http://www.AKidsRight.Org/

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