Here's what's wrong with my
href="http://dichroic.diaryland.com/prophetfit.html">rant from yesterday, I've
just realized: people fall asleep during rants. They get boring. This is why I
will never asked to tell the Israeli people how to run their country. Sarcasm, as
the old bards knew, is far more effective. Check
href="http://throcky.diaryland.com/ashcrofttit.html">this out, courtesy of the
inimitable Miss Throckmorton.
Though, as I noted, I don't have the
moral credibility to off suggestions to people who are facing insane bombers, I
was listening yesterday to the words of someone who does. I've been driving to the
tune of the autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, created by
collecting his writings and recorded speeches to tell the story of his life. The
people of Montgomery, during the bus boycott, did face enemies far enough gone in
hatred to throw bombs into their houses and churches. The last of those bombers is
on trial only now, in fact. And Martin called on them to return hatred with love,
to preserve themselves by turning away from bitterness and preserving their
principles of nonviolence. Jews don't have that "love thy enemy" principle, but
our entire Law was summarized by Hillel as "What is hateful to you, do not do unto
another". You don't have to love them, but you do have to treat them with the
common humanity that is become so uncommon.
Listening to Reverend
King, I find I can't forget for a moment that the "Dr." in his title was an earned
doctorate. That man was incredibly well-educated, with a command of the language
that reminds me of the speeches of Winston Churchill I listened to recently. I'm
impressed that he used that erudition as a tool for his passion, that he managed
to communicate and lead people of every level of education through some fairly
difficult concepts and more than fairly difficult levels of pain and
inconvenience.
I would like to know who was the main organizer of
the logistics of getting people around during the Montgomery bus boycott, whether
it was King or Abernathy or someone else. I don't know why budding MBAs don't
study that episode in management classes. Imagine: you have half a city full of
people, few of whom own cars, few of whom can afford to take a cab every day, and
you need to keep them off the city bus system. For a full year, as it turned out.
Even the sympathetic cab companies can't lower their fares, because there's a
minimum fare mandated by law. Even the most sympathetic of white employers are
being pressured not to pick up and deliver their employees. On the first few days,
people would walk as much as 12 miles to their jobs, which bespeaks an amazing
level of commitment, but no one can keep that up, not in sweltering Alabama summer
heat, not in icy winter rains. They organized all the people with cars, had them
donate as much time as possible and set up regular routes and dispatch stations.
And people walked where possible, or drove mules, or did anything else they could
to get around. For, I repeat, just about an entire year. An amazing feat of
motivation and logistics.
I don't know if this book is available in
book form -- it would lose a lot without the recorded speeches -- but Corretta
Scott King's book Life With Martin also has a lot of the
details.
Um, so much for using sarcasm instead of earnestness. I
don't think I have a future as a bard. Oops also about that second line above this
message. That should read, "Now Playing in my Head: Sweet Home Alabama. Those
lyrics are so hateful I'm always amazed they still play that song. Also, Phil
Och's "Here's the State of Mississippi". I'll be glad when Andrew fixes things so
we can edit those fields after entering them.