Living Life On A $1.96

I wrote a discussion journal, and I like it, so I thought I'd share

October 25, 2004
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” attempts to redefine his actions into terms that better fit his intended goal and to shine light on misconceptions. He critically thinks about the real meaning of words such as extremist, direct action, negotiation, just law, and stability.
Dr. King starts out saying he is not an extremist, but with careful consideration and redefinition of the word he comes to the conclusion that he is an extremist. He states, “But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction for the label” (182). He then redefines extremism by what you are an extremist about, thus, negating its negative aspect when he says, “Was not Jesus an extremist for love…” (182-3). He defines direct action, as an operation that follows only after negations and failed. In terms of the processes, direct action is not spontaneous; rather, it is the end result of a well laid out plan. When it comes to justice, King uses it to define moralistic refusal to obey the laws. He sees disobeying an unjust law as obeying a moralistic just rule. The founding fathers decided that if we think our government is wrong we have the right to over throw it. Dr. King also sees this right, no duty, when he chooses to disobey unjust laws imposed by the government who in its baby steps disobeyed the largest naval power in the world. Dr. Martin Luther King’s namesake was in his own right a man devoted to civil disobedience, saying, “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” when he stood up for the injustices done by the Catholic Church (183).
Martin Luther still loved the church even though he didn’t care about their practices and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also still loves the church even though he doesn’t care for their practices. I feel the same way. Although I like the stability in my church home, I choose to create instability in order to change unjust behavior. In my community to this day, racism is still prevalent; there are very few black members of our church. My pastor decided to help a man who had been down on his luck. He let him stay in his house, play with his kids, come to church with him. A large amount of the elders were outraged. Others in the congregation like me stood by Pastor Sippy then and later when we were assigned a black vicar. We didn’t need a vicar then, but if no one stood up for him then we wouldn’t have another one later.
Even still, sometime stability is preferable to justice. I know a man who is an extremist for justice, but he has no ability to live in this society because of it. He is so strong in his beliefs that he is unable to adapt to imperfect situations. Most of the time he ends up isolating himself and creating chaos in the situations he attempts to control. King in his search for justice created stability through his plan toward direct action so that when they stood up for justice the chaos was minimized. Not only did they wait till the best time to act, they also carefully chose where they’d act and how. They didn’t grab a bunch a pitchforks and torches and storm the streets. They knew their enemy was a monster, not Frankenstein or Dracula, but a much deeper rooted monster inside everyone of us.