Meanwhile, any discussion of the problems of inequality is meaningless unless a time dimension is given to programs for their solution. It is disquieting to note that President Johnson in his message to Congress on the Demonstration Cities program stated, "If we can begin now the planning from which action will flow, the hopes of the twentieth century will become the realities of the twenty-first." On this timetable many Negroes not yet born and virtually all now alive will not experience equality. The virtue of patience will become a vice if it accepts so leisurely an approach to social change. Conflicts are unavoidable because a stage has been reached in which the reality of equality will require extensive adjustments in the way of life of some of the white majority. Many of our former supporters will fall by the wayside as the movement presses against financial privilege. Others will withdraw as long-established cultural privileges are threatened.
What is freedom? It is, first the capacity to deliberate or to weigh alternatives. "Shall I be a doctor or a lawyer?" "Shall I be a Democrat, Republican or Socialist?" "Shall I be a humanist or a theist?" Second, freedom expresses itself in decision. The word "decision," like the word "incision," involves the image of cutting. Incision means to cut in, decision means to cut off. When I make a decision I cut off alternatives and make a choice. The existentialists say we must choose, that we are choosing animals, and that if we do not choose, we sink into thinghood and the mass mind. A third expression of freedom is responsibility. This is the obligation of the person to respond if he is questioned about his decisions. No one else can respond for him. He alone must respond, for his acts are determined by the totality of his being.
The immorality of segregation is that it is a selfishly contrived system which cuts off one's capacity to deliberate, decide and respond. The absence of freedom imposes restraint on my deliberations as to what I shall do, where I shall live or the kind of task I shall pursue. I am robbed of the basic quality of manness. When I cannot choose what I shall do or where I shall live, it means in fact that someone or some system has already made these decisions for me, and I am reduced to an animal. Then the only resemblance I have to a man is in my motor responses and functions. I cannot adequately assume responsibility as a person because I have been made the victim of a decision in which I played no part. Nothing can be more diabolical than a deliberate attempt to destroy in any man his will to be a man and to withhold from him that something which constitutes his true essence. [11]
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Notes:
[1] King, Dr. Martin Luther (1968). "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?". New York, NY: Beacon Press, pgs 80, 86, 99, 151. ISBN 0807005711
[2] Kendall, David. (April, 2009). "Dr. King Spanks Obama: Part 1". Oped News. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dr-King-Spanks-Obama-Par-by-David-Kendall-090412-92.html
[3] Douglass, James W. (March 15. 2000). "The King Assassination: After Three Decades, Another Verdict". Christian Century. http://www.precaution.org/lib/09/prn_king_assassination_another_verdict.000315.htm
[4] Sheehan, Cindy. (January, 2009). "The Legacy of Dr. King". Workers Action. http://www.workerscompass.org/mlk_sheehan.html
[5] Pilger, John. (April, 2009). "Obama's 100 Days: The Mad Men Did Well". World News Daily: Information Clearing House. http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22514.htm
[6] Chomsky, Noam; Carlos Peregrín Otero. (2003). "Chomsky on democracy & education". Routledge. pg 249, ISBN 0415926327.
[7] Kendall, David. (2009). "Natural Adversaries". Oped News. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Natural-Adversaries-by-David-Kendall-090324-854.html
[8] Chandler, David. (2009). "Tour of the US Income Distribution: The L-Curve". David Chandler. http://www.lcurve.org/
[9] infoplease. (2009). "U.S. Voting Rights". infoplease. http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html
[10] Wikipedia. (2009). "Right to vote: History of suffrage in the United States". Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_vote#History_of_suffrage_in_the_United_States
[11] King, Dr. Martin Luther (1968). "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?". New York, NY: Beacon Press, Excerpts from chapter 3. ISBN 0807005711
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