Honoring the Dream

[captainsblog]

No mail or stupid retail sales, no court or school, no bank or bond markets.  We honor the memory of a man of peace with these pauses. The evil among us cause such trouble and grief that our Capitol was stormed less than two weeks ago, and there is plenty of credible intelligence of another attempted insurrection. (Reports of another lockdown of the building earlier today turned out to be related to a nearby fire.)

But what should we do with the time provided?

Here's a hell-to-the-no: Quote just that one line from the Dream speech about "content of their character" without providing the context around that content.

Here's a better idea: read Letter from a Birmingham Jail. 

It clocks in at just under 7,000 words, and while Dr. King apologizes for its length, it's about the same as Romans and First Corinthians in terms of word count. Somewhere in my more religious past, I remember being told that some theologians considered adding it to the New Testament canon; while I don't see that happening, it could become part of a Christian Talmud of supplemental and explanatory works.  Some of the quotes from it that are as relevant as today's headlines:

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

Especially when they're wearing pelts, Viking horns and "Camp Auschwitz" gear while storming their own seat of government.

Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all." Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

And THERE is the difference between the 2021 insurrection and the 2020 BLM protests- well, that and the marked difference in police resistance to the protesters.  I'm proud to say we included a prayer from St. Thomas Aquinas in our wedding service 33 years ago, and despite our lack of church affiliation, we still honor his principles far more closely than the graduate of his namesake Rochester high school arrested for participating in the insurrection.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

Imagine what he would think, almost 60 years later, of those stained glass windows now being crystal catherdrals of "evangelical" Dominionism that has bargained, not with their God, for the explicit support of hatred, division and prejudice in exchange for three seats on the Supreme Court.

And it ends with....

Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Still hoping.

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In a little over an hour, I am going on a Zoom meeting to honor some who knew Dr. King, featuring one speaker who participated in his own form of direct action.

Mets fans know Donn Clendenon for his key role as the final assembled piece of the 1969 Mets miracle, winning the World Series MVP award. But a year earlier, he was on the Pittsburgh Pirates, and his personal connection to MLK made him the leading voice in getting his team, and eventually all of baseball, to stand down for two days to mourn the man after his assassination.

After his playing career, Clendenon became a respected lawyer in Ohio, passing from leukemia in 2005. Another of the Pirates who took a stand that April was Manny Mota. Perhaps best known in popular culture for a pinch-hitting appearance that never (never) really (really) happened (happened), he is one of those still alive to remember the call for cancellation of two days of games, and will be speaking today on a HOF-sponsored online talk about it.  I may add thoughts from that after posting this.

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ETA.  What a gentleman.

Mota and the moderator, Hall of Fame researcher Bruce Markusen, talked about how Clendenon was more than just an acquaintance of Dr. King; the Reverend was his faculty advisor at Morehouse College and they'd been close friends for many years.  He, and fellow baseball legend Roberto Clemente, led the movement to postpone the Opening Day games scheduled in the immediate wake of the assassination, but they were joined in the effort by all players on the Pirate roster- Black, Latino and white- and the team's general manager also supported the move.  Mota talked a lot more about Clemente, a fellow Latin American who came up in the 60s and  helped keep him on Pittsburgh's roster. He also revealed that Clemente's leg-breaking line drive of Bob Gibson that year was on purpose- retaliation for beaning him, Clendenon AND Willie Stargell the first time through the lineup. 

Then Mota got the trade to the Dodgers that turned him into a record-breaking pinch hitter. Not only did that earn him a trip to Jimmy Carter's White House to honor his accomplishment, it made him the fixture in pop culture I referred to earlier:



I wasn't going to be the one to ask, but bless him, Bruce went there and put up the slide of the Airplane! scene at the end of the Zoom session. Manny loved it (as did Borbón, per his Wiki page), didn't know it was in there ahead of when he finally saw the film, and he never did pinch-hit for Pedro, even when they were on the same team in winter ball.

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I have one other 70s sports story to share, but parts of it are still works in progress, so hopefully this will remind me to come back to it.