Sign up to receive Ward and political newsletters by email here.
This morning, for my fifth time as a Newton City Councilor, I attended the Harmony Foundation’s annual celebration of the life and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Each year there are various musical performances by students and community members, speeches by dignitaries and keynote guests, and more. And although there are always thought-provoking reflections and commentaries on themes of harmony, unity, and racial justice, I often find myself thinking about what is conspicuously missing from Newton’s annual celebration of Dr. King.
This year the theme of the event was “everybody can serve,” which is a line from the final sermon that Dr. King delivered at his own church prior to his assassination in 1968. The speech is often referred to as “the drum major speech” and was replayed at his funeral, lending it greater prominence. One speaker today also quoted the speech’s line about how Dr. King wanted to be remembered at his eventual funeral: “I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.”
Some absent messages today
But what was not lifted up at today’s event, as it never seems to be each year?
Just two sentences later in the same speech comes the following line, delivered during the Tet Offensive period of the American war in Vietnam:
“I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.”
It is curious to maintain silence on this point of his legacy, with various major wars in the world dominating the news headlines each day for months or years now.
And the very next sentences beyond that are these:
“I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.”
To my mind, the three things that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was best known for, in his own lifetime of activism, were his struggle for racial justice and civil rights, his pacifism and opposition to war, and his struggle for economic justice. Each January in Newton only one of these makes the cut to be remembered and acknowledged by the scheduled speakers.
Dr. King and the Labor Movement
Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee while he was there rallying with AFSCME union public sanitation workers striking against the city government after the deaths of two members. They were striking for better pay, safer workplace conditions, and recognition of their union by the city.
At many crucial points in the racial justice / civil rights struggle, Dr. King was closely aided materially by the United Auto Workers union under the leadership of Walter Reuther, who wanted the vehicle of union organizing to be a method of broader social and economic change in the United States. For example, the UAW was deeply involved in the famous March on Washington, where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. (Reuther also participated in the post-assassination push to bring the Memphis strike to a successful conclusion for the sanitation workers’ union.)
This is something to think about – and take inspiration from – as the union representing our public educators here in Newton finds itself increasingly at an impasse with the Mayor and School Committee in their efforts to secure a contract with a living wage for all members and sufficient, safe staffing levels to care for and help raise our children.
In fact, the only mention of this at all today came from unscheduled remarks by an elementary school music teacher who took the microphone for a few minutes to comment on this situation before conducting a musical number by students.
Service against cynicism
True harmony comes from fairness and justice in a community and a society’s commitment to peace and reconciliation. It does not come from cynically hand-waving away or suppressing acknowledgment of the differences, divisions, and material inequities in the name of some false unity.
The dreamers who want our society to live up to its full promises are not naive. They are the only ones who understand what is actually required of us to live and thrive together successfully and permanently. The dreamers know that the people who don’t want to push for challenging changes are the unrealistic ones, whose way of life cannot be sustained on its uneven foundations in unstable soil. (As engineers will tell you, rigidity is brittle and flexibility is strength.)
We are each called to serve one another in love and humility because humanity only survives together – and if we do not step up to serve, then who else will?
Among many aspects, that service inseparably includes promoting peace and economic justice.