A dignified struggle

By Liv Stecker

 Politically speaking, we are poised in a historic moment. As we look toward the inauguration of one of the most controversial Presidential candidates in recent memory, issues of civil rights, individual liberty, military power and social programs are paramount in a way that perhaps they haven’t been since the 1960s, when another controversial president came into power. John F. Kennedy was a democratic candidate who opposed Jim Crow (segregation) laws that were still in effect in many states, and won the presidency by one of the narrowest margins in U.S. History. Today, January 16th, 2017, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday observed in remembrance of one of Kennedy’s political backers and the father of the civil rights movement. Dr. King endorsed Kennedy only after the then Senator worked for the release of King from a hard labor sentence springing from a minor traffic violation. King and Kennedy, while allied in their pursuit of civil rights, were not always in agreement about other key issues.

 A Navy veteran from World War II, It was his military service that predisposed Kennedy to make the stalwart cold war decisions that helped to avoid nuclear war and a “peace through strength” policy. Kennedy’s civil rights ally, Martin Luther King Jr., did not share the president’s views on war or the military. In fact, King has been largely considered a pacifist by many as his endorsement of conscientious objectors during the Vietnam conflict was widely publicized. But King wasn’t strictly anti-war. He was realistically aware that his religiously driven philosophy of change effected through love was a hard sell in the hate-fueled civil rights battle, much less the international political theater.

 In a recorded interview from 1960, Dr. King says, “I would ... say that it is a method which seeks to secure a moral end through moral means, and it grows out of the whole concept of love, because if one is truly nonviolent that person has a loving spirit, he refuses to inflict injury upon the opponent because he loves the opponent." Later, in 1967, King voiced his opposition to the war in Vietnam, but not in all conflict: “I see this war (Vietnam) as an unjust, evil and futile war. But if I had confronted the call to military service in a war against Hitler, I believe that I would have temporarily sacrificed my pacifism because Hitler was such an evil force in history...I would willingly have fought against the Nazi menace of the 1940s."

 President Elect Donald Trump swears in to office in the midst of violent race-driven riots that mirror the civil rights struggles of Dr. King’s day. Martin Luther King Jr was, above all, an advocate for peaceful protest and respectful civil disobedience. While enduring gross injustice in a segregated culture, he worked toward peaceful change: “I am convinced that when the history books are written in future years, historians will have to record this movement as one of the greatest epics of our heritage," he said. "It represents struggle on the highest level of dignity and discipline."

 Currently, protests against election results, ambushes on law enforcement and other civil unrest that seeks validation under the banner of human rights is a far cry from the war that Dr. King waged on the flagrant racism of the 1960s. Even his recommendation of conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War was rooted in the fight for equal treatment of black men in a military system that had only recently parted from the practice of troop segregation.

 As we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and look ahead to the presidential inauguration, it is only the careful weight of worldviews that guarantees our success as a nation. Balancing our national “strength with power” philosophy and the unwavering support of our military forces and domestic law enforcement with the belief that our fighting energy should be saved for the real evil that pervades this world is imperative to our survival as a people united. The civil unrest and current political climate would be well served by a reappearance of Martin Luther King Jr and the spirit of his message.

 In the immortal words spoken by Dr. King on a sweltering August day in 1963, “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” The real enemy shows his face in the form of the terrorist on our own soil and the violent tyranny of factions overseas who threaten not only civil rights but life and civilization on every level.