Striking A Deal With Evil
“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There came a time when Martin Luther King Jr. had to make the choice between sticking strictly to the Civil Rights Movement or reaching out to confront greater evils and risk his achievements (and his reputation). In the end, after much soul-searching, he realized that the core issues he had fought so hard for were being compromised by the greater issues he was being urged to ignore. He understood that the money spent in fighting the Vietnam War was money that was not being spent in inner-city slums, was not being spent on reparations. Worse, the very principle of non-violence upon which he based his struggle against racism would be undermined if he were to stay silent on the issue of war. How could he tell people that violence was not the answer to their problems yet stay quiet while young African American males were being sent overseas to kill and be killed? By fighting the smaller fight, he would in the end undo all that he had sought to advance because his fight was inextricably bound with much bigger issues. This was not a popular decision, and many who had in the past rallied to King’s cause turned against him.