CELEBRATING DR. KING’S LEGACY IS AN EVERYDAY CALLING

I make no apologies for my support of an official holiday honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. I have no trepidation in being in the vanguard non-coercive advocacy to make the holiday a reality in Greenville County.

I celebrate Dr. King not only out of empathy to the African American cause, but because Dr. King’s legacy is about universal ennoblement, the dignity of body, mind and spirit that is the God-granted gift of all Creation.

Now, how do we get from here to there?

A word about coercive strategies to make the holiday a reality: The only legitimate “coercive strategy” is to use the ballot box. So far, all we know for sure is that a handful of elected officials are standing in the way of a county holiday. We may have our intuitions about the constituencies that they represent, but none of that is hardnosed fact.

By the same token, we know that only a handful of substantive candidates with solid, well organized backing have risen to oppose them. Now, not later, is the time to start identifying and cultivating those candidates – enlightened people who are not easily intimidated, speak their minds and stand by their convictions. We must get behind them and move their candidacies forward.

I believe that such honorable alternative candidates are present in Greenville County. If they win, it will not merely be a victory for a Dr. King holiday but for a far broader progressive agenda for the county. If they lose, we must seriously ponder and effect deep-seated change in the spirit of the constituencies that are so stubbornly malevolent.

Yes, a holiday to honor Dr. King's legacy is of tremendous, transcendent symbolic importance. Our efforts toward that end must be ceaseless. Yet, I pray nonetheless that the campaign not become so obsessive that we do not redouble our energies to combat the substantive issues that continue to make life a horror for the underclass: poverty, unemployment, homelessness (or absence of affordable housing), illiteracy, drugs, unwed pregnancy, and the other forms of social malaise.

I fear that Dr. King's name is not sufficiently invoked by Caucasians and African Americans as a shining inspiration toward public and private conduct befitting the children of God. Thus, we should take the struggle one level higher, by consciously associating each step forward we take in building the "Beloved Community" with the inspiration of Dr. King, making his teachings a daily reminder of the guiding light that leads us to champion social justice.

We ought not merely do right, but do it as testament to Dr. King's legacy. We have attempted to do precisely that with Greenville Faith Communities United, as we keep revisiting Dr. King's image of the "Beloved Community" to establish our vision and our agenda. Perhaps we should strive to coordinate as many community-building initiatives as we can under the umbrella of a "Dr. King Coalition for Non-Violent Social Action." Such a coalition would in no way challenge the autonomy of these initiatives. But, coalescing might help us identify unnecessary duplication of efforts and at the same time determine needs that are yet to be addressed.

Most importantly, such a coalition would bring together right-minded community servants and activists to study and discuss the strategies for change that stem from Dr. King’s legacy. Then, we can identify ways that we can translate them into decisive realities for our own community. I would propose, at least for a starter, that we unite for a one-day countywide program of seminars and workshops to examine the various dimensions of non-violent social change. Can I hear someone say, “Amen!”?

That way, we might establish an "every-day-ness" about the motivating spirit of Dr. King, something that is consciously, consistently celebrated each day of the year. It may even bring us closer to having a holiday in his honor. But even if those foolish (mean-spirited?) men and women do not let that happen, at least Dr. King's legacy will become a more dynamic driving force and positive role model for those who would hearken to his message.