MLK Freewriting

"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White citizens' "Councilor" or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direst action" who paternistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

King, Martin Luther. Letter from Birmingham City Jail. Philadelphia: [American Friends Service Committee], 1963. Print.

This passage states various ideals regarding people who stand by and wait as "moderates", who care for order rather than equality and justice. In a previous passage Martin Luther King states that "this 'wait' has almost always meant 'never'", and that is exactly what these moderates wish for; for any injustices to simply blow over and disappear with time as they degrade. I believe the reason people are so indecisive in such choices are from them already having everything they want and never having any injustices acted directly upon them. Once people identify these injustices they begin to rise up as they always have, such examples are the Revolutionary War, Civil War, French Revolution, Prohibition, Women's rights, and more recently gay rights and cannabis. It is in human nature to fight for what we want and desire, it has just been a matter of gaining enough momentum to actually make a change for what we wish.