Davison's Doodle

MLK Jr: Letter from a Birmingham Jail

This letter reminds me how much dialogue is “out there” and within my own denomination between the clergy as much as needs to happen between the laity as well as between laity and clergy.  I also read this wondering where MLK Jr would be on marriage equality.  Having stood at the MLK Jr Memorial last month these words echo as MLK, like Lincoln, looks back towards the Capitol building keeping an eye on the work of each new legislature as if to say, “You made a down payment years back, but still have insufficient funds for the obligation of freedom and self determination of all America’s citizens.”  Click the title to read the entire letter.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]”
16 April 1963

My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.