The comfortable moderate

inspired by MLK

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Palestinian's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not only the radical Zealot or the Zionist supremacist, but the comfortable 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 cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the inmates of a concentration camp to wait for 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.

I had hoped that the Gulf Arabs would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the comfortable moderate would understand that the present tension on campuses is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the house-Arab passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Avoiding necessary tension because it is uncomfortable as children starve and food trucks are blown up; to bury your head in entertainment without adding at all to a collective effort to Right a wrong, is tantamount to abetting the crime itself.

Will your comforts sedate you into a torpor until it's you or your children who are next? If you allow it then yes. Worse than neutrality, you dismay others who can't stand idle as the innocent are butchered because it disrupts the order you crave.

Do not decorate your home or person with religious symbols. Universal humanity is an action not a belief and while it doesn't require a dogma, you can not claim to follow universal principles of morality if you condemn the oppressed for fighting back.

Would blame a man who was robbed for possessing things that tempted the thief? A culture that boast about it's inhumanity, one that films and celebrates war crimes could never be negotiated with through words.

The Buffalo score few victories against Lions, but what choice have they? To languish and die or attempt resistance. To pretend he is being eaten because he fought back is ignoring all previous encounters with Lions and Buffalo.

Hamas didn't start this conflict. They did not even exist for the first 35 years of it and held no political power for the first 57 years of it. They are the predictable reaction to 75 years of oppression and ethnic cleansing. So no, I do not condemn Hamas not without condemning the pogenitors of the conflict, the Zionist occupation forces and their compromised American counterparts who could end this tomorrow if they so wished.

Inspired by MLK
Trump promised to release his files as well as the files on JFK and RFK yet none have come so far.