My current reading is King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop. It is amazing how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. bravely led civil rights actions such as the Montgomery bus boycott. I love the quote (the original quote is from Ghandi): "There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader." It's as if he just chanced upon the opportunity to be part of a huge shift in civil rights. The white leaders in Montgomery fiercely clung to the racial status quo, and in retrospect, they look like such asses. I have a couple of thoughts to share, sparked from this read.
We like to think that in today's America, we have basically equal right. How can we even think this when some conservatives and religious factions similarly stand behind their bigoted views about gay rights? OK, gays and lesbians can vote and aren't lynched (there's progress for you), but they are not allowed to marry the person they love! This deprives them of some very basic rights and has legal and financial ramifications.
It's interesting to read about blacks fighting for their civil rights at this time of year when Jews around the world are sitting around their seder tables discussing what current events relate to the Exodus story about freedom and oppression. Were Jews in the 60s relating this story to the black struggle for equal rights? In my mind, it is so clear that Jews around the country should be appalled with gay rights issues.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but wasn't it clear to the white leaders of Montgomery, Alabama, that even if they held their ground firmly, the leadership that would replace them would eventually go the way of equal rights and desegregation? Couldn't they see that's the way the country was moving? Can't today's leaders see that that's the way this country is going now? Even if they try to hold their ground now, we ARE going to get equal rights for gays and lesbians and transgender people. Why can't they see that? Why do they want to stand in the way of progress? The future?
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