Today in the United States, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King was a clergyman, a civil rights activist, and a public servant in the 1950s and 60s. He rose to prominence after the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and is perhaps most famous for his “I Have a Dream” speech, made during the 1963 March on Washington. A recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, King dedicated his entire life to the fight to end racial discrimination in the United States through non-violent civil disobedience.
King believed that discrimination exists out of peoples’ lack of understanding of others. Out of this lack of understanding comes a resolute fear in the “other,” and results in prejudice and injustice. King became the face of a movement he helped to build, representing a vast constituency of average Americas fighting for their right to equality. The idea that citizens rallied around Dr. King’s message is what makes the Civil Rights Movement one that will be forever recognized in United States history.
I could never hope to fully capture the energy of MLK Day in the United States in a blogpost, there’s simply too much to say. In short, MLK Day has two primary purposes. It is this day that we sit back and reflect on the state of our world and the oppression that still exists despites Kings’ best efforts. And it is also a day of service, where citizens are encouraged to go out and honor King’s life by giving back to their community.
But what does Martin Luther King, Jr. Day mean for the climate change movement? As such an incredible force in the broader context of advocacy, King’s teachings have significant meaning in the fight for climate justice.
Solidarity
“Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
In order to solve the climate crisis, we must put aside our petty differences and come together to support our common cause. While I was in Copenhagen this past December, the most comforting thing I observed was all youth standing in solidarity together regardless of country of origin, skin color, or religious affiliation. We were from extremely diverse backgrounds, yet, in our orange t-shirts, we were armed with a common cause.
In this fight, much like the one that King fought, it is crucial to remain in solidarity. We cannot afford to allow our basic differences to set us apart. Right now we are a minority voice, but as we continue to rally support and spread our message, our numbers will continue to grow.
Speak Up
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Regardless of the hurdles we encounter, whether domestically or internationally, we must never stop fighting. This is a struggle for survival, and if we stop just because the future looks bleak, then what are we fighting for in the first place. Silence will be the end of our movement. We must use all of our resources to raise our voices louder than we ever have in the past. Our future depends on it.
Stay Positive
“Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.”
It is not worth our time to hate or express outright disdain for the Jim Inhofe’s out there, even if he wants to be the Earth’s number one enemy. The fight ahead is long, but if we become too focused on hating our enemies, we will never succeed.
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
“Keep climbing. If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving!”
No matter what happens, we can never stop fighting for climate justice. It’s far too easy to focus on the failure of the Copenhagen conference or climate deniers bashing climate science, but I implore you not to listen to the naysayers. Let’s take all of their negative energy and flip it around. Let’s use it to really catalyze grassroots action and drive this movement forward. We can’t stop, and we won’t stop, till we get the job done.
Much like the Civil Rights Movement, the climate movement is fighting for rights, but perhaps in an unconventional manner. We’re fighting for our right to grow up in a world that is more just and more stable, free from environmental degradation and climate change, and we have much to learn from Dr. King. MLK Day is a day for our movement to reflect on King’s legacy as well as what we have accomplished thus far and how we want to move forward in achieving our goals. Have a contemplative and service-filled MLK Day, and remember to “keep moving!”
Don’t forget King late in his life as he got more radical and was calling for revolutions in the existing economic/power structures. This is from the Beyond Vietnam speech given at the Riverside Baptist Church in Harlem on April 4 1967 (exactly a year before he was assassinated in Memphis)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm
And two of my favorite quotes:
“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must… rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.”
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