“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., I am reminded of one aspect of him that is most compelling to me. Over and over, King warned us to refrain from keeping silent—to speak up when we encounter injustice. One of his most profound statements was: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” King reminded us that we cannot merely sit back and watch injustice; we need to speak out and consciously push back against it.
All too often we complain about injustice and prejudice; we watch as the rights, history, and culture of others are trampled on or erased (take a look around, it’s happening now). Yet we say nothing and we do nothing. Sometimes, we refrain from speaking out because we assume that “speaking out” means protesting with signs or acts of civil disobedience. Speaking out can manifest in this way, but it can also happen through writing, through the way you live your life (being consistent in your values and actions), and by pointing out injustice in every day situations when you see it.
Writing about the civil-rights era, King said, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” I can’t help but think that his words are applicable today in our current political climate—a climate in which civility has been replaced by anger, hate, and atrocious deeds. In order to change the tone of the rhetoric of hate, we must speak up. We must stand up against injustice and for those who are being treated unjustly.
King urged us to feel passionate about freedom and justice, even calling upon us to give our life for what we believe in—much like he did. He said, “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” Whether he met this in actuality does not matter to me. What he was saying is that when we feel strongly, we must act in the ways that we know how. We must use our strengths as individuals to make society better and we must act as the conscience of our nation.
Whenever I feel strongly about an issue but fear the idea of speaking out, I think of the words of King. He said “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” These are simple words, but they are wonderfully profound in their message to all of us.
7 Responses to Martin Luther King Jr. and Silence
11238317 - January 17, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Thank you Marybeth for reminding us of these truths– never were they needed more.
rick1952 - January 17, 2011 at 6:00 pm
A nice reminder of what Edmund Burke said, that the triumph of evil requires the silence of good people. We must speak up and challenge injustice if we want to curb injustice.
But, as Marybeth notes, there is a next step – after we speak up, we must also act. It was King’s courage to act that made him the great leader we celebrate. King acted even though he knew that it put his life at risk. Here’s hoping I, and many others, have the courage to act when we speak up.
princeton67 - January 17, 2011 at 10:46 pm
Two observations and a proofreading:
(1)Martin Niemoller also:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
BUT
(2) “What he was saying is that when we feel strongly, we must act in the ways that we know how. We must use our strengths as individuals to make society better and we must act as the conscious (sic) of our nation.” Be very careful about defending actions based on strong feelings. Assassins, as well as angels, “feel strongly.”
(3) perhaps “conscience” rather than “conscious.”
katisumas - January 18, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Princeton, has anyone ever told you that focusing on typos instead of on substance is not only the equivalent of being silent but also is one of the best means to silence others?
We all know Pastor Niemoller’s famous poem. We also know that Gandhi was influenced by Thoreau and in turn MLK was influenced by Gandhi –was there ever any more beautiful cross-continental flow!
Niemoller’s and Gandhi’s, and now for us particularly and mostly (because he was so recent and the US hasn’t changed much and he spoke our language)Martin Luther King’s lessons bear repeating. These are not academic rivalries, they are not cited because of their originality, they are cited and rephrased and translated and re-translated and re-cited because we have and are failing to heed to them…
saholloway - January 18, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Words to indeed live by! Thank you all!
buzzer - January 18, 2011 at 12:32 pm
These truth apply to ANY injustices. As long as we agree to that principle, I am fully in support and will work to make reality.
You don’t get to select which injustices you want to place on your list of selected causes.
kathrine9 - January 18, 2011 at 11:59 pm
nice… though context is also important, those quotes were from an earlier time when a certain kind of activism made an impact – these days I work on myself first, eliminating as many contradictions in my own life as possible and then choose my battles and think about an effective way to fight them.