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What Would Martin Do?
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Reflections on MLK Day 2004: What Would Martin Do?
by R.W. Burniske
While participating in a march honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in Honolulu on January 19, I could not help wondering what Dr. King would make of the current state of our union. His opposition to pre-emptive wars and state-sponsored violence should be obvious enough, but how would he assess the health of our public discourse and democracy in light of the past twelve months?
We would do well, after all, to remember that shortly after the observance of Dr. King's birthday in 2003 the President of the United States used the State of the Union address to garner support for a pre-emptive war against Iraq. That speech included at least one bogus claim due to "faulty intelligence," a claim that damaged the credibility of the president and his administration at home and abroad. Whether he knowingly deceived, or ignorantly mis-spoke, the president misled everyone who trusted his words and based their opinions upon the information he shared at that critical point in time.
Question is, what should Americans do about that now? What should the journalists, especially those too comfortably "embedded" in the pre-war White House to ask difficult questions, do now? What should the politicians who called anti-war protestors "un-American" do? What should all the people who allowed themselves to be intimidated or silenced by flag-waving zealots do?
I believe Dr. King would say that at the very least we must reclaim our rights as citizens of a democratic society. That means demanding a more genuine, public discourse, one that encourages and respects alternative viewpoints. We must stand up to would-be authorities, including the imperious pundits on radio and television who tell us to shut up, follow the leader, and stop doubting him because he has "secret intelligence" that we lack.
In recent months, apologists for the Bush Administration have tried to dismiss the flap over the president's use of "faulty intelligence" in the 2003 State of the Union. They apparently underestimate the public's will and intelligence. Rather than forget it, we ought to re-visit that deception and use it to question the state of our union and the health of our democracy. Public acquiescence has emboldened this administration to not only deceive, but also to endanger American soldiers, squander more than 100 billion dollars in its current military campaigns, and perpetuate a brutal cycle of violence that helps terrorist organizations recruit new members. Meanwhile, the Bush administration exploits the war on terrorism as an excuse for de-funding social programs that took root during the civil rights movement that Dr. King championed.
This is not the time to give the president a political mulligan for mis-speaking and mis-leading. It's time to re-invigorate public discourse in our country. As members of a democratic society, we are required to question the intelligence of those who shape public opinion. The Bush administration is no exception to that rule. Nor is the media, which has too often imbibed and regurgitated the faulty intelligence of this administration.
Dr. King would surely recognize that since September 11, 2001 we have become an acquiescent nation. Too often, we have failed to question authority; too quickly, we have forfeited civil liberties in exchange for the false promise of security under the so-called Patriot Act. In a speech given at the University of California in 1958, Dr. King called for resistance to social injustice, encouraging what he considered a healthy, and necessary, form of "maladjustment." As Dr. King observed,
We should all seek to live a well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted and to which I call upon you to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things.
A year ago, Dr. King would have joined opponents of the US attack on Iraq, everyone who had the courage and conviction to defy the faulty intelligence that claimed "you are either with us or you are with the terrorists." Today, he would remind us that if we wish to preserve freedom and democracy in America, we must question the intelligence of our leaders and the wisdom of their actions. Sheepishly agreeing with those in power, abdicating our right to question authority, will undermine the democratic principles that we supposedly cherish. Why, he might ask, are we so eager to dismiss the intelligence of common people for the faulty intelligence of elected officials?
After all, if not for the "maladjustment" of its original patriots, America might still bow to a British Monarch and pay taxes without representation.
January 20, 2004
R.W. Burniske is an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
