MLK on the three ways of meeting oppression

On Martin Luther King day, I'd like to reflect on one of King's speeches, "The Three Ways of Meeting Oppression". No matter how one feels about Christianity or religion, his speeches are more timely than ever when you apply them to our struggle for LGBT civil rights. It is important to note, King lays out a template for us to claim our rights. We must remember he was battling people who claimed they were simply following their Christian faith when they denied African Americans their civil rights. King lays out the different ways one can choose to respond to oppression which are resignation, violence or non-violent resistance. Of course, we and our supporters must replace some words like "Negro" with "gay citizen," but the struggle to realize our rights is still the same old battle with the oppressor. On resignation:

To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother's keeper. So acquiescence-while often the easier way-is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward. The Negro cannot win the respect of his oppressor by acquiescing; he merely increases the oppressor's arrogance and contempt. Acquiescence is interpreted as proof of the Negro's inferiority. The Negro cannot win the respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.

We should no longer be willing to sell the future of our next gay generation. If we attend any celebrations or cocktail parties unless it is to celebrate the satisfactory execution of promises made by the Obama Administration on ENDA, DOMA and DADT, we are compromising our future. It is as simple as that. If our leaders continue to sell us out, we must exile them from our resistance and reorganize.

Of course, another option is violence:

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. A voice echoes through time saying to every potential Peter, "Put up your sword." History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that failed to follow this command.

I have to admit, I sometimes let my testosterone overload my conviction to put these very wise words into action. I tend to want to respond to hate with an equal and opposite spiteful reaction. King teaches us how self defeating a reflexive move towards violence is. "An eye for eye" doesn't resolve anything effectively. So how do we do it?

The third way open to oppressed people in their quest for freedom is the way of nonviolent resistance. Like the synthesis in Hegelian philosophy, the principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites acquiescence and violence while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both. The nonviolent resister agrees with the person who acquiesces that one should not be physically aggressive toward his opponent; but he balances the equation by agreeing with the person of violence that evil must be resisted. He avoids the nonresistance of the former and the violent resistance of the latter. With nonviolent resistance, no individual or group need submit to any wrong, nor need anyone resort to violence in order to right a wrong.

Easier said than done, but the eternal truth is there and we must adhere to it. King notes we should not fall for the "glib suggestion" by others to move en masse to another area of the country because we must fight oppression through non violent resistance where we are. We must do it as patriots to our country so that in his words, we "can make a lasting contribution to the moral strength of the nation and set a sublime example of courage for generations yet unborn."

AMEN! Read the rest of this post...

Kerry Eleveld: We are so f'd

Okay, I'm paraphrasing just a little:

While ginning up social conservatives may garner a few more votes for the GOP, the idea that social issues have actually hurt Martha Coakley in Massachusetts -- the first state to embrace marriage equality, a state that was represented by someone affectionately called “the liberal lion of the Senate” for nearly half a century -- is sheer lunacy. A Democratic loss in Coakley’s race will signal nothing short a serious enthusiasm gap, not a backlash against social progressivism.

But Democrats do own the economy now and they have spent the better part of their first year passing health reform legislation that at best is poorly understood by the American public and at worst is seen as a liberal boondoggle. Unfortunately, people who fall into both of those camps don’t see how any of it is immediately relevant to them when they can’t pay the mortgage on their home or put enough food on the table to fill the stomachs of their children....

In actuality, health reform was not a requirement, it was an elective by administration officials – who surely told LGBT leaders that equality would find daylight once health care was put to bed. It is also the initiative that dominated last year and continues to eclipse all else this year.

And now we find that the exclusive focus on health reform has disillusioned the public as well as demoralized the progressive base because its mandates are so weak – that is the cautionary tale of Coakley.

Wouldn’t it be ironic, if health reform, the issue many LGBT leaders said must pass before we pushed more fervently for equality, became the stumbling block to every other progressive agenda item in Obama’s first term (not to assume a second one).

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Filmmaker producing video version of Prop. 8 trial

The Prop. 8 trial won't be in session today because of the federal holiday. And, as we know, the Supreme Court ruled against televising the proceedings. However, we are going to be able to watch the trial on YouTube after all. It won't be the actual trial, but will have actors doing a re-enactment. Via On Top Magazine:

After the Supreme Court blocked video broadcast of the federal trial to decide the constitutionality of a gay marriage ban last Wednesday, freelance journalist and filmmaker John Ireland decided he'd produce his own version and post it on YouTube.

“People want to see this drama unfold and there is a tremendous narrative that was propelled by that first day of testimony,” Ireland told On Top Magazine on Sunday. “This is the first time that gay and lesbian people have talked about their lives in federal court. It's historic from that point of view.”

Ireland said he's basing his storytelling on the accounts of bloggers present at the trial that started last Monday in a San Francisco courtroom.

Videos should be on YouTube tomorrow. Read the rest of this post...