Commentary: The Silence of the Good People

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed, “We will have to repent in this generation not only for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

While we can take comfort in the fact that the civil rights movement ended this country’s most blatant forms of racism, the persistence of injustice in our society should inspire outrage and action.

Are we standing in appalling silence as our immigrant neighbors live in constant fear of workplace raids and racial profiling–all because they were forced to leave their home countries to find work to support their families?

Are we speaking out to demand and end to discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation? Or are we watching silently as others are denied equal rights?

Are we demanding that this exceptionally rich country provide for the basic needs of all? Or are we content to substitute charity for justice as long as our own comforts are secure?

If King were alive today, he would no doubt demand that we end these appalling silences that perpetuate human suffering and indignity.

–Jackie Smith

[The preceding was published January 21, 2008 in the South Bend Tribune.]

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