Rev. Martin Luther King once said, “I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence. In other words, I’m about convinced now that there is need for a new organization in our world: The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.”
By saying that he didn’t ever intend to adjust to bigotry, economic inequality, or the madness of militarism and physical violence, Rev. King implies that we shouldn’t either. If we don’t actively counter these wrongs, we are adjusting to them by saying, in effect, “it is what it is.” If we do that, we may be ignoring our First Amendment right to speak out peacefully and respectfully yet strongly and bravely. We should resist becoming “adjusted” to bigotry in the form of Muslim travel bans or attacks on Jewish synagogues or predominantly black churches; to some, Muslims, Jews, and blacks are “other.” We must not treat this as the “new normal.” If we do, we may well have the same destiny as the frog which fell into a pot of water — at first cool, but became hotter as the temperature of the fire rose beneath the pot. He instinctively continued to adjust gradually to the ever hotter temperature but soon the pot of water reached the boiling point and the frog died.
Except for the true native American Indians, America is a nation of immigrants. So it would seem that it would be natural for us to feel empathy toward new immigrants who come here from war-torn countries to escape conflict and hunger or who immigrate with the hope and intent of living peaceful and productive lives. Rev. King said he did not intend to adjust to bigotry and neither should we.
In the past couple of years there have been many news reports about the increasing economic inequality in the country, and many people have seen this reflected in their stagnant salaries and diminished buying power. Family income data from census reports show that the era of shared prosperity in the U.S. ended in the 1970s, and since then the divergence in income between the rich and the poor has continued to increase. From 1979 to 2007, average income after taxes quadrupled for the top 1% of American earners. In that 28-year period the middle 60% of American earners saw an increase of 192% while the bottom 20% experienced an increase of only 46%. The income gap continues to widen, a fact brought forcefully to our attention by Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2016 campaign.
See CBO “income Gains…” chart
Source: http://www.cbpp.org/income-gains-at-the-top-dwarf-those-of-low-and-middle-income-households
Rev. King’s reference to the “madness of militarism” also begs the question of whether we have become “adjusted” to our country’s too-frequent involvement in wars. How often do we talk — individually or as a nation — about the real possibility of peace and ways to work toward achieving it? Is it ever a part of our conversation? America’s involvement in the wars in Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq resulted in some 65,000 American deaths. These wars also had enormous adverse effects and aftereffects on the surviving soldiers who fought in those wars, many of whom still suffer from their physical, mental, and emotional wounds. In the last couple of months, the new administration has ramped up American involvement in Syria, and in late January an American Special Operations officer was killed in Yemen in a raid against al-Qaeda militants.
Militarism is not only “madness” in its killing of fellow human beings in war, but it can creep insidiously into other areas of our national life. For instance, during the 2014 riots protesting the killings of young black men in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and elsewhere, a few local police departments became militarized when they used tank-like vehicles and military weaponry in quelling those riots.
Another of Martin Luther King’s thoughts gives us hope: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Dr. King would be proud of the many Americans who do feel maladjusted to bigotry, poverty, and war and who feel a new responsibility to be vigilant in view of the newly elected administration and many of its words and actions. They are not comfortable adjusting expressions of distrust and disrespect toward the press and the judiciary. If we want to preserve our democracy as we have known it, we should not accept this as the new normal. And so if we refuse to adjust to this, we, like Dr. King, are good candidates for membership in the International Organization for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment. However, Senator Cory Booker recently delivered a cautionary addendum: “The arc of the moral universe does not just naturally curve towards justice, we must bend it.”
