I have written on more than one occasion about the meaning of commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. This year, there is especial poignancy and relevance for two reasons.
First, until this year admission to the U.S. national parks on the federal holidays commemorating King’s birthday and Juneteenth was free. These dates were eliminated among the free-admission days and were replaced by the birthday of President Trump by the current administration. The disrespect displayed by this small-minded directive toward the importance of the civil-rights movement and the abolition of human slavery in the history of the United States is highly disturbing.
Second, there has been a mounting wave of violence to achieve political ends in the recent past. We have seen assassinations and assassination attempts of government, political, and business figures, including a presidential candidate, Minnesota state legislators and a prominent political activist. The assault upon my friend, Judge Steve Meyer, and his wife makes vivid for us that this corrosive is not a problem that we can dismiss as only eating away at society somewhere else. The evil is present, even in our own community.
The rise in the resort to violence also materializes in extrajudicial killings on the streets of the United States and the waters near South America. The threats, explicit or implied, to conquer Greenland from an ally are other manifestations of this savage mindset.
King was a stentorian voice for nonviolence. His opposition to violence applied equally to government actions, emanating from law enforcement or military interventions, and to resistance to injustice. Nonviolence, however, did not equate, in the fight for justice, to passivity. He embraced nonviolent civil disobedience.
It is not an exaggeration to say that assassinations and an ill-conceived military intervention changed the direction of the nation in 1968. King, who recognized the peril of violence at home and abroad, became one of its most recognized victims.
His message is more important today than it has ever been. We are not truly showing our esteem for him unless we are adhering to his consistent exhortation: “Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred and emotion.”
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., I invite everyone to join in recommitting ourselves to his vision of a just and peace-loving society.
Let us be the voices of reason, sanity and understanding.
— David Sanders, West Lafayette city councilor, at-large
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Op-ed: Let’s recommit ourselves to King’s message of peace, nonviolence
Reporting by David Sanders, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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