May 29

Blog #20 – Would you be willing to go to jail?

“I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest.” – Martin Luther King, Jr, Autobiography

 * emphasis is mine.

Initially going back to the 5th Century, St. Augustine stated that “an unjust law is no law at all”  giving some theological weight / heft to earthly laws. Henry David Thoreau suggested that we obey our conscience when we decide to obey or disobey a law.  He went to jail during the Mexican War and wrote his famous essay on civil disobedience.  Gandhi used Thoreau as inspiration, and King used Gandhi as an inspiration.  Gandhi and King used religion to inspire and their followers.  Here’s a quote from Dr. King from a sermon in the early days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott:

… I want it to be known that we’re going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. And we are not wrong; we are not wrong in what we are doing.

If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong.
If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong.
If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.
If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth.
If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning.
My friends, we are determined … to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

But we can’t necessarily have people going around disobeying laws that they don’t like.  There has to be some standards.  Right?  According to Dr. King, he stated that the difference is:

“A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.“

He further elaborates on this and states that: “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

Assumption: Since we cannot argue and fight with every law that we think goes against “the harmony of moral law” or disobey laws at whim (for instance, I might think that one day, the speed limit downgrades my personality, therefore I am going to take a principled stand against it by not obeying it), we have to assume that most laws need to be obeyed. 

But what are unjust laws today??

1. Abortion?  Or restrictions on abortion?

2. Wars or other military actions?

3. Immigration laws like the one in Arizona?

4. Gay rights? Or restrictions on gay rights?

5. Economic stuff like taxes?  Or lack thereof on companies, individuals, etc.?

6. Military draft (don’t worry, we don’t have one)?

7. Environmental damage?  Or lack of environmental laws?

8. Jobs or a lack of jobs?

9. Software and music / movie downloading -piracy?

10. Behavior / actions of an American company (sweatshops, illegally drilling, dumping, etc.)? 

11. ????

 Questions to answer:

a. Would you be willing to go to jail to protest unjust laws like the Civil Rights workers had done many times during the 1950s and 60s?  (Consider the ramifications of a felony or misdemeanor on your record, and its impact on your possible future career).

b. After consulting the list above, which laws would you be willing to fight against?  Why? (feel free to add to the list if you see any missing).

c. Do you agree with Dr. King’s reasoning w/ what makes a law just or unjust?  Why or why not? 

Due Wednesday, June 1 by class.  300 words total. 

 

Letter from a Birmingham City Jail by Dr. King.

Link to Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.”

A history of mass civil disobedience by ACT UP.

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March 26

Turner Classic Movies – Civil War movies all through April!

Every Monday and Wednesday night in April, Turner Classic Movies will broadcast 34 movies dealing with the Civil War to celebrate (if that’s the right word) or commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the war (April 12, 1861, 4:30 a.m., bombing of Fort Sumter, S.C.). 

Check out the schedule here: http://www.tcm.com/ 

The first two movies on Monday night, April 4 (also, the same day Dr. King was shot in 1968), at 8 pm, the granddaddy of them all, Gone With the Wind.  After that, a 1957 film called Raintree County which is about “a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black.”   Sounds ridiculous, but check out the film for yourself.   However, I sense a trend, b/c on Wednesday, another 1957 movie called Band of Angels deals w/ a similar topic, but this time, the story focuses on the southern belle surviving after the war and she discovers that her mother is part black.   Maybe it’s anxiety over integration brought on by the Civil Rights Movement manifesting itself in movies? 

On April 11, you’ll get to watch the silent film classic that jump started the KKK in 1915, Birth of a Nation at 8 pm.  In fact, the whole evening is devoted to the earliest silent films on the war.  Wednesday night April 13 includes two comedies about the war, The Southern Yankee starring Red Skelton and Advance to the Rear.  Sandwiched in between those two is a Shirley Temple “classic” called, The Littlest Rebel.   After those three is a musical number called Golden Girl and then another comedy called General Spanky that includes some of the cast from a TV show called The Little Rascals. 

What you really might learn from these movies is not a true accurate portrayal of the war but you’ll probably get a glimpse into how Americans wanted to view this conflict and the racial strife that tore the country apart.  You’ll also see unflattering stereotypes of African Americans, sometimes played by Black actors themselves. 

On Monday, April 18, the schedule finally gets better with a Clint Eastwood classic from 1976, The Outlaw Josey Wales followed by Major Dundee with Charleton Heston and Richard Harris (the first Dumbledore) made in 1965.   A John Wayne epic called Horse Soldiers follows those two, and then Escape from Fort Bravo and A Time for Killing. 

Wednesday, April 20 brings a few interesting movies including Virginia City, in which suave ladies’ man Errol Flynn poses as a dance hall girl to become a rebel spy.  The other movies shown on this day deal with tensions created by the CW out West. 

On the last week of April, Monday April 25, we see (in my humble opinion) one of the best CW movies in Glory followed by what many consider to be one of the best, Gettysburg.  The source material for the movie is the great book, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, but the movie is too long, has terrible acting and dialogue, and repetitive scenes.  It’s a case of the director going for accuracy over drama. 

On April 27, the director of Birth of a Nation returns 15 years later with a biography pic on Abraham Lincoln.  I’ll hold off judgement until I see it.  After that is a bio pic of Vice President Andrew Johnson called Tennessee Johnson.   The last film of the evening (and of the month) is Drango, in which a Union soldier encounters animosity while he tries to help Southerners rebuild their town. 

Also, Twitter has an ongoing hash tag (#cw150) where you can check out anything to do w/ the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  A lot of these tweets are news on re-enactments, newly available digital archives, book announcements, and day-by-day tweets as to what was going on at that time.

Enjoy.

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