White Plains CitizeNetReporter - The Real Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Has Been Forgotten.

WPCNR News Comment. By John F. Bailey. January 19,2003: Millions in the streets in Washington this weekend, protesting and urging America not to start a war with Iraq. Would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have felt at home? I am sure he would be in the forefront, but remembering him, I think he would have another message to get across to us beyond the “no war” message.

He would say there are still wars to be fought at home that America is losing, and has been losing for sometime.

This morning there were two celebrations of Dr. King’s memory at the County Center and at the Crowne Plaza. I did not go because the leaders who went to these functions, members of all the races, creeds, income levels, and power positions were just doing what is always done on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. They celebrate Dr. King’s peaceful focus on the issue of segregation in the 1960s. This is very nice. It makes all who participate feel good. That they have “done the right thing.”

Actually these celebrations are a way out of doing something about the real wars Dr. King would have been fighting today.

The last thing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted to do was to make people feel good. He wanted to wake you up. Get in your face. Show you the real picture. He did not go gently into the morning. He made you pay attention. By showing you what was wrong by demonstrating segregation in action. Getting arrested. Putting himself out there.

Who does that today about matters that really matter?

In my opinion, celebrating Dr. King’s accomplishments is only part of Dr. King’s legacy. What I took from Dr. King, was that this man had the courage to point out wrongs. To work to expose those wrongs continually. He could not avert his head. He did not play politics.

He did not associate with fools. He did not offer respect to persons just because it was politically correct. He did not tolerate the message of hate, no matter who was preaching it: Ku Klux Klan or a Black leader.

It was to Dr. King’s credit that he “kept his eye on the prize.” He did not compromise. What would Dr. King say to the leaders of today?

I believe he would look around with that great, piercing gaze of his and ask, what have the leaders of the concerned and the powerful and the diverse minorities today done for their people to focus attention on what is wrong? And fix it?

Have they lead marches against illegal housing, for example? No.

Only homeowners in neighborhoods occasionally complain about illegal housing, and so far only one councilman in four years has attempted to even quantify the illegal housing growth.

Where are the minority leaders whose people are most exploited on these issues? Why does it take a Glen Hockley to focus on their problem?

Have the community leaders of underachieving minorities demanded more attention to the minority achievement gap? No, it took a superintendent search to focus in on that problem, and arouse the minority community to make this a strong issue.

African-American and Hispanic leaders should be out there, and should have been out there in the forefront to work hand-in-hand with the school district to bridge this gap. Timothy Connors, the new Superintendent of Schools is reaching out to the communities to identify, quantify, and see what approaches work and do not work. But, why weren’t the communities speaking out more strongly five years ago?

Has there been a grassroots movement to educate the underprivileged to the computer revolution? No it took Mayor Delfino’s personal experience and long concern about education of the underprivileged to invent the Digital Divide labs, and open five in 4 years in the city, because he wanted to. The Digital Divide Labs are perhaps the Mayor’s most understated but meaningful achievement.

Here is what I believe Dr. King would say to us today: We must make a difference in our own cities and towns. We must look inward, and when we see wrong things, work to fix them. Expose ourselves to be politically incorrect. Put ourselves at a little risk, to reputation, to alienating friends who may not agree with us. Be brave.

As we get older we get too comfortable. Too much to lose. Too afraid to make a difference.

That was what made Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. different. He was not afraid.

Concerned Citizens for Open Space, essentially a group of well-meaning citizens, has been the most active White Plains protest group of the last 15 years, and what galvanizes them? A tract of land owned by someone else. They are passionate, committed.

Meanwhile, there are more important issues everyone should tackle: illegal housing has been a tolerated cottage industry in White Plains. Homelessness has not been solved because the victims are just housed. Minority youth are routinely marched off to do jail time in their teens, when white, well-connected teens commit serious crimes and get off with very light sentences.

Dr. King, you can be sure would not tolerate the homelessness problem we have today. I think he would be thundering about the minority achievement gap, calling it just as much segregationist as Selma in the ‘60s, can’t you just hear him?

Where are those voices today in White Plains? Why aren’t there more?

There are hundreds of organizations dealing with the victims of the problems and helping, to be sure, but no one is out there attacking the root causes that create the problems.

I think this is the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Many leaders today are able to live with the status quo because things are better, and it is comfortable for them to do so and pat themselves on the back every year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Dr. King was unable to live personally with the status quo. He did something about it and was committed to change. No one could talk him out of it.


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