Power of Ideas
Across the country people came together to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. School children participated in essay contests, communities gathered to tell stories and to read his speeches. People marched in Washington D.C, and held rallies to invoke his legacy of the longing for a world that fosters justice and peace.
The Detroit gathering brought together close to 1,000 people on one of the coldest days of the year, packing the sanctuary of St. Mathew & St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church on Woodward Avenue. Two overflow rooms were needed to hold the crowd gathered to celebrate the theme “Jobs, Peace, and Justice, while protecting Water, Climate, and Communities.” Poets, musicians, and dancers punctuated speeches exploring the meaning of Dr. King’s messages for today.
For the first time in many years, the United Auto Workers had a strong presence. President Shawn Fain, talked about how the labor movement and civil rights movement were “inextricably intertwined.”
Congressmember Rashida Tliab spoke warmly about the connections between movements in Detroit and Dr. King, noting that every day in Detroit is Martin Luther King Day. She said, “As we strive today, and every single day in our district, in our communities (to bring) Dr. King's dream to reality, we always remember his tenacity and commitment to human dignity and justice for all."
Virtually all the speakers and performers acknowledged that this was the 100th day since forces of Hamas attacked people in Israel, whose government then launched one of the most brutal military assaults since the Vietnam war. Calls for a ceasefire received the loudest and most sustained appreciation from the audience.
Detroit joined communities around the country in looking not only at the past, but at the critical relevance of Kings message for today. For many people, this was an opportunity to ask what does King tell us about the terrors being visited on Gaza? What does it mean to us as in the midst of a brutal war in Ukraine? What insights do we get about racism, militarism, and capitalism today?
In many places, King’s indictment of the US government as the “greatest purveyor of evil” and of our need for a radical revolution in values, key concepts in his speech against the Vietnam war, resonated powerfully.
The richness of King’s thinking as a philosopher and as an activist are emerging as people seek ways to understand the demands of this time. As violence intensifies. King offers a clear vision of the power of love to transform us as we engage collectively in transforming the structures that deny freedom.
It is the power of his ideas that have so provoked right wing extremists to first resist this holiday and now to openly attack it. It took nearly two decades after King’s murder for the day to be acknowledged as a federal holiday, and another two decades before all 50 states adopted it. Some states grudgingly acknowledged it only after pairing it with Robert E Lee Day. The most extreme elements of the right wing promote it as James Earl Ray Day. It should come as no surprise that the Trump forces have decided to attack not only the holiday, but King himself.
We need to be mindful of these attacks, especially as those among us who have a living memory of Martin as a man, and of the times and people that shaped him, pass on to the ancestors. Their ferocity is a sign of how much they fear his ideas. For just as in the 1960’s when the US faced the most profound questions about the kind of people we are, and the kind of people we want to become, we are facing a time of critical choices. The words and wisdom of Dr. King are touchstones for our efforts to again shape the world anew.