MLK "Letter From Birmingham Jail"

   Some years ago, I remember reading Dr. Kings' letter in school. Likely due to the fact that I was a middle school student in a mostly white suburban neighborhood of Massachusetts - it didn't really resonate with me the same way it does today. It took a few more years of public education, social acclamation, and political understanding to feel more connected to this letter. That connection is certainly not because I have any true experience on the matter, but because at my age and in this political climate, I can listen to Dr. Kings' words more clearly.

   There is one particular moment in his writing which hit me the most as something which remains important to this day. The idea of waiting. Dr. King writes: "I have never yet engaged in a direct-action movement that was "well timed" according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the
ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never."" (2) Even today, we hear the same argument being made. It is timeless. "It's just not the right time" "politics are too messy right now, don't add fuel to the fire" "Just wait things will change on their own." These are arguments people still make in order to quell the desire for protest in America. Time, for many years, has worked as a manipulative tool. Too often people separate time and the realities of the world that requires action.
 
   To Dr. King, there was no other time to act. The inequalities and injustices in the country had been happening for many years and were happening right there and then. He understood both the illusion of and fleeting nature of time. We are all moments of time. Prisoners of neither the present or the future, but of the moment we are in, however quickly it passes. To Dr. King and those marching with him or for the same purpose, time had already taken its toll on the people, and every new moment that they could not incite change is a moment lost for true freedom. As true as it was during those years, today there is still work in social equality which is to be done. We may hear the same excuses for exactly what the right timing is to act, but there is no question that timing is now.