As I write this, I am working the bookstore at the Shirlington Village (in Arlington VA) branch of Busboys and Poets, the chain of restaurants named for Langston Hughes. As it happens I was just, as is my wont, rereading an older post, written in response to Mitt Romney saying some things should be discussed only in "quiet rooms." I am proud of this post from January 2012.
In it I found occasion to quote two of the poems of Hughes - "Let America be America again." and "What happens to a dream deferred?" In that post I pondered and reflected upon the meaning of the poetry of Hughes.
But it was also the occasion of the celebration King Day, and I also reflected on some of his words.
Below, I want to revisit some of those words by King, and, along with the words of Hughes, see how they apply right now, in a time when once again we are discovering what the apparent real values of the administration in power might be.
There are two passages among those I quote from King I would like to revisit:
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
and
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. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
I think we are more than approaching spiritual death as a nation - I think we may be at the beginning of the death throes.
As I prepare to reenter a public school classroom come August, I am aware that I Will step into the midst of an ongoing war against public institutions, one unfortunately aided and abetted by the educational policies of this administration. Perhaps it is that I see myself like the boy throwing beached starfish back into the ocean - I may not be able to save them all, but for some I can make a difference. Or perhaps another image is a propos - I may not be able to slay the enemy but I can slow him down long enough that others may escape to fight on.
I prefer not to use the violent imagery I just did. just as I prefer to avoid violence - of words as well as of actions. As King said Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
I am wrestling with several issues. Ond obviously is the rationalization being used for the actions recently disclosed of the NSA and the FBI. That is part, but only part, of the complex of things to which we are dedicating resources to the exclusion of meeting other needs of our society
The other is what we do with the information we have, which is the perpetration of violence - in some cases physical violence oversees, be it by drones or other methods of killing and destroying. It can also be to disrupt using technology.
By now we know that in our attempt to eliminate "terrorists" by things like drone strikes we often succeed in alienating more people, thus creating more opponents against our aims whom perhaps we will also label as "terrorists." Here I think back to the Reagan administration ransoming hostages with weapons, thereby encouraging the taking of more hostages for the profits to be gained. I wonder if we will ever step back and consider seriously the total costs of the actions we pursue?
I do not think all is darkness. Clearly on some fronts we ARE making progress as we have seen in the increasing number of states granting marriage equality. Now we will have to see if the Supreme Court will attempt to order the inevitable tide to recede, or whether it will affirm what is already implied in previous decisions.
I do not deny the government has a responsibility to protect the American people. I happen to think the American people are entitled to be informed. If the response of this administration is to devote even more resources to keeping the American people from knowing what they are doing, how then is our government operating on the basis of the consent of the governed? I do not remember my voting for a Presidential candidate who said he would use every power he could grab to pursue terrorists. I though I heard someone who said something very different - certainly in 2008, and even more recently.
We are too militaristic and violent as a society.
What worries me is not only the actual violence and militarism, but the words that perpetuate that, including in our political discourse.
I believe in a vigorous contest of ideas.
There are points where we can and must draw lines and not negotiate further - some things should remain inviolable.
I hope what I do in my remaining years conveys more of what I read in the words of Hughes and King than it does in the actions of violence and the words that foment it.
I want to call the nation to account on behalf of those denied, those who suffer still even as others gain even more from the wealth of this nation, or as King put it,
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
No longer should we be willing to settle for a deferring of the dream.
All are entitled to pursue their dreams.
Your wealth and political power, whether earned or inherited, cannot grant you greater rights or else this is not America for all of us.
Today I reread some words of others.
You may wonder why I noted their color.
We are at a time where for some the fact the President of the United States is of color implies we have overcome our racial divisions, while for others the fact of that color "proves" his illegitimacy for that office.
Often it is those who are outside the normal structures of power - for whatever reasons - who can offer the clearest vision of what is wrong.
These two men both experienced discrimination and hatred because of their color.
Both speak powerfully, not only to their own times, but still to ours.
You can go to the linked diary to read the complete text of the two poems by Hughes.
You can read any of the myriad speeches by King to see the power of his vision, his words, his prophetic voice.
THey still speak to me.
So I thought I would share them again.
Make of this what you will.
Peace.