"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it."
The words of Dr. Martin Luther King as he articulated the essential case for non-violence in 1967. Forty-three years after he left that immortal thesis as a guidepost to the value of strong action in the name of a worthy cause, but without resorting to murder and mayhem, America is grappling with the consequences of violence, the assassinations of six people in Tucson, Arizona, the other day – the deaths of a federal judge, a nine-year-old child and three senior citizens, and the serious injury suffered by 14 [others], victims of a clear act of violence by a young man believed to be mentally ill.
The awful tragedy in Arizona occurred close to the day people everywhere in the land were getting ready to observe the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Holiday and the 82nd birthday of the martyr who preached non-violence but was cut down by an assassin's bullet in Memphis.
The penchant for violence and the growing tendency to display a lack of civility in our daily lives in America and other parts of the world demonstrate the relevance of Dr. King's stance more than half a century after he became the conscience of America. The holiday and the birthday observances offered us a poignant moment to reflect on where the United States is going and how we can retreat from the precipice and avoid the violence that it is breeding.
After all, it was Dr. King who appealed to the nation in a telling phrase: "Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now."
There was more.
"Through murder, you may murder the liar, but can't murder the hater, but you do not murder hate," he warned in the 1960s.
That truism must be repeated as many in the country, especially those on the extreme right, march stridently across the political landscape with their racially tinged code words and phrase designed to stir people emotions without a care in the world about the consequences. What's just as bad is that much of it is directed at the decent man now living in the White House, the country's first Black president, President Barack Obama, and his intelligent and beautiful wife, both of whom have not been tarnished with a hint of scandal, despite the millions being spent by his opponents to upend his administration at all cost.
For as we think about Dr. King on his birthday and reflect on the historic nature of Obama's achievement in 2008, we recognize quite clearly that without the tireless efforts of MLK, Marcus Garvey and hundreds, perhaps thousand, of others who fought against discrimination and abuse, Obama wouldn't be in the White house, freely elected and without the manipulation of the judicial system or any hostile troops marching down Pennsylvania Avenue.
The behavior and the utterances of many Tea Party adherents – who have a highly visible presence on Capitol Hill and in the state legislature these days – and the words and actions of key movers and shakers of the Republican Party are a sure sign that much of what Dr. King stood for and preached against has been lost on many who shape public opinion and who decide national, state and local policy.
But the problem of violence isn't restricted to the public arena. There is a mad rush to inflict pain and even kill people with whom we disagree and in some cases we don't even know. Quite recently some Brooklyn religious leaders decided to focus City attention on the consequences of violence on the street. They are worried, quite rightly, about the violence perpetrated by youth gangs in Black neighborhoods. Stated simply, they want to stop the Black-on-Black killings in central Brooklyn, for instance. Bishop Cecil Riley and some other sincere religious leaders, along with Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, took to the streets of East New York on a recent Saturday morning to reach out to the youth to curb their violent tendencies. The epidemic of violence can be traced to the firm belief that scores can be settled through the use of guns and the firing of bullets. But as Dr. King explained: "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."
Clearly, the abrasiveness evident in our public discourse and the settling of scores with violence, be it through the use of a gun, machete, knife or other dangerous weapon, are the antithesis of Dr. King's essential message.
If we are searching for ways to honor his memory we can find them in improving our relations with each other, lowering the angry rhetoric that laces the speeches of those seeking public office or by finding acceptable alternatives to the quick trigger finger response to a dispute.
