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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2014)
lanuary 15, 2014 kb 2014 L M a r t in L u t h e r K in g J r . Page 31 s p e c i a l e o itiön Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Honoring King, Gandhi and Mandela Their lives show us what is possible by M arian W right E delman L ast m onth, all across the w orld people jo in e d together to m ourn fo rm er South A frican p resid ent and freedom fighter N elson M andela. T here w as a d eep shared sense o f loss at the p assing o f one o f the rare hum an beings w ho truly helped change the w orld. M andela suffered ex traordinary h ard ships, spent 27 years in prison, including 18 on R obben Island under the harshest c o n d itio n s, an d w a lk e d o u t ra m ro d straight, unbow ed, full o f a spirit o f re c onciliation, and offering a hand o f peace and hope. H e becam e the first B lack P resident o f his country and transform ed the w ay w e view leadership and our individual hum an ability to m ake the im possible possible. O ne o f his legacies w e can help real ize and sustain is the N elson M andela C h ild ren ’s Fund, w hose m ission is b u ild ing a ch ild rights m ovem ent and ch an g ing the w ay South A frica treats children and youths. T h eir w ork includes su p porting children orphaned by the A ID S p andem ic, em pow ering children w ith d isabilities, and p rom otin g youth leadership. T h e fu n d d e s c rib e s how N e lso n ’s M a n d ela ’s last w ish w as to build a c h ild re n ’s hospital in Jo h an n esb u rg to serve all children o f southern A frica regardless o f race, socioeconom ic status, o r abil- ity to p a y . T h e N e ls o n M a n d e la C h i l d r e n ’ s H o s p it a l w ill b e M r. M a n d e la ’s legacy and lives by his creed that “a so c ie ty ’s soul is rev ealed by how it treats its c h ild ren .” I hope w e all support this fund and hospital cam paign. In his accep tan ce speech after being aw ard ed the 1993 N obel P eace Prize, M an d ela said this about the prom ise o f a new South A frica: “A t the southern tip o f the co n tin en t o f A frica, a rich rew ard [is] in the m aking, an invaluable gift is in the preparation for those w ho suffered in the n am e o f all hum anity w hen they sacrificed e v ery th in g . . . T his rew ard will not be m easured in m oney. N o r can it be reck o n ed in the co llectiv e price o f the rare m etals and p recious stones that rest in the bow els o f the A frican soil we tread in the footsteps o f o y r ancestors. It w ill and m ust be m easured by the h ap p i ness and w elfare o f the children, at once the m ost vulnerable citizens in any soci ety and the greatest o f our treasures. T he child ren m ust, at last, play in the open veld, no longer tortured by the pangs o f h u n g er o r rav ag ed by disease or threaten ed w ith the scourge o f ig n o rance, m olestation and ab u se.” M a n d ela ’s co m m itm en t as a lead er to South A frica’s ch ild ren w as the ex ten sion o f a principle that has go v ern ed leaders o f traditional co m m u n ities for generations: If the children are w ell, then all o f us are well. In his p residential inaugural address, M an d ela ex p an d ed on his sim ple vision for all o f South A frica ’s fam ilies: “Let there be ju stic e for all. Let there be peace for all. L et there be w ork, bread, w ater and salt fo r all. L et each know that for each the body, the m in d and the soul have been freed to fulfill th em selv es.” P resident M a n d ela ’s w o rd s e ch o Dr. M artin L u th er K ing, J r .’s N obel P eace Prize speech w here Dr. K ing said: “I have the audacity to b eliev e that p eo p les everyw here can have three m eals a day for th eir bodies, ed u catio n and culture fo r th eir m inds, and d ig n ity , eq u ality and freedom fo r their sp irits,” w o rd s now etch ed in stone on the M artin L u th er K ing, Jr. M em orial in W ash in g to n , D .C . In S ep tem b er, a statu e o f N elso n M an d ela w as unv eiled in front o f the South A frican E m b assy on M a ssac h u setts A venue in W ashington. C lo se by on the sam e A venue is a beautiful statue o f M ah atm a G andhi. A m id st all the m onum ents to w ars and m ilitary leaders in o u r n a tio n ’s capital, w e now have lasting testam ents to three great p ro p h ets o f nonviolence and peace to guide o u r actions at this inflection po in t in our n a tio n ’s and w o rld ’s history. The lives o f M artin Luther King, M a hatm a Gandhi, and N elson M andela show us w hat is possible. L et’s d o n ’t ju st cel ebrate and m ourn them. L et’s follow them. Marian Wright Edelman is presi dent o f the Children's Defense Fund. Dr. King’s Lessons for Climate Justice A beloved community in which we are all interconnected have im agined the p articu lar features o f global environm ental destruction that we now face. Yet, he had reflected care fully on the form s o f action needed to avert m ass extin ctio n before, so his w ork can still be useful today in thinking about directions for the clim ate ju stic e m ove m ent. by J osé -A ntonio O rosco First, King rem inds us to think in term s F ifty y e a rs ag o , M a rtin o f the ‘ ‘beloved com m unity’ ’ in which we L uther K ing Jr. w on the N obel are all interconnected. T hat m eans that Peace Prize. O ne o f the m ost the injustices that w e experience are also striking aspects o f his acceptance speech intertw ined. For m any clim ate activists, is the hope he expressed in hum anity ’ s thinking about racism , sexism , or poverty ability to o vercom e w ar. T his w as no are side issues; after all, if there is no m ere idealism on his part. habitable earth, then those problem s w on’t L ess than five years earlier, the w orld really m atter. King cautioned against the had com e to the brink o f therm o n u clear view that injustices could be divided into destruction because o f C uba. T he U nited neat isolated silos. States and S oviet U nion ev entually di- The world, he said, faces the danger o f m inished their threats and, in 1963, signed the “evil triplets” racism , m ilitarism , and and ratified an ag reem ent to en d the m aterialism . These are inter-related fea- o p en -air n u clear testing that w as blan- tures, he thought, that are at the root o f keting the planet w ith radioactive fallout, w ars o f aggression, such as V ietnam , T hese w ere sm all steps, but to K ing, against distant peoples for control o f natu- they indicated that hum an beings w ere ral resources needed to m aintain the luxu- capable o f cooperation, even in the face ries o f a few. o f som ething as horrendous as the-sui- C lim ate change activists today need to cide o f the hum an race. acknow ledge the overlapping system s o f T oday, the annihilation o f hum anity injustice that m ake som e people vulner- loom s again as a possibility because o f able to clim ate dam age m uch m ore im m e- clim ate change. In 1964, K ing co u ld not diately. It will be poor countries, largely in the G lobal South, that will suffer the m ost from environm ental degradation o f air, water, and soil. In the US, extrem e w eather - as we have already seen with H urricanes Katrina and Sandy — will disproportionately affect econom ically fragile areas, usually m ade up o f historically m arginalized com m uni ties: indigenous people, people o f color, im m igrants, the elderly, and L G B T Q people. Clim ate justice activists will need to build alliances around these diverse issues, and develop the ally capabilities to listen to, and lift up, the voices o f disenfran chised people. In his last years, King w rote about the form s o f activism that w ere needed to confront the evil triplets. He w arned activ ists not to get trapped by the usual m ix o f dem onstrations and protest that were hall m arks o f the early Civil Rights movem ent. W ith these form s o f direct action, King believed the m ovem ent had fallen into “crisis thinking,” that is, reacting to injus tice after it had already appeared. C om plex ju stic e w ould require m ass protests, but it also m eant getting out in front o f social problem s, and building alternative civic and econom ic stru c tures so that people w ould not have to rely on p roblem atic state o r corporate institutions. H e called fo r organizing n eighborhoods and creating div erse net w orks o f allies that co u ld support one another. A g lim pse o f this kind o f activ ism cam e about w hen O ccupy o rg an iz ers p rovided assistan ce in the w ake o f H urricane S andy in 2012. A chieving clim ate ju stic e , then, will m ean not only protests ag ain st this p ip e line o r that shipping port, but also w o rk ing to connect local co m m u n ity g ardens, alternative currencies, free lib raries and m edical clinics, into thick w ebs reach in g across urban and rural areas. T his kind o f o rganizing w ill enable w idespread skill sharing and m utual aid, but also d eliv er a m essage that w as d aw n in g at the height o f the O ccu p y m ovem ent: an o th er w orld is possible, and there are m any across the w orld w ho d esire to w ork tog eth er to build it. King believed we had it within us to avoid m utually assured destruction; he also thought w e were developing the in sights and activist resources to radically align our world to the m oral arc o f the universe. The clim ate justice m ovem ent m ight becom e the place where we prove him right. José-Antonio Orosco is associate professor o f philosophy at Oregon State University where he directs the Peace Studies Program.
