Martin Luther essay - Grade: B PDF

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Martin Luther essay - Grade: B...

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail The document that I chose was Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. King’s whole letter was focused on explaining himself and the movement instead of verbally attacking. He  preaches against segregation and answer the concerns of critics of nonviolent direct action programs. King  talks about the four basic steps to a direct action nonviolent campaign. His views conveyed by the letter were idealistic and based in moral judgement. Idealism describes individuals’ attitudes toward the consequences of an action, and how the consequences affect the welfare of others. According to Idealism , idealism is “hope  to minimize conflict, maximize cooperation among nation.” It also focuses on moral concerns like human rights. Idealists believes that people are good and quite cooperative, through working together they can achieve the goal. In Martin  Luther King Jr.’s letter, it shows that some view are idealistic. King’s purpose of the letter was to persuade other citizens and make a point that the black community had waited enough time for change. Change has no happened. It is right and just to take action in order to gain equality for all discriminated and segregated individuals. King talks about the four basic steps to a direct action nonviolent campaign. The four steps are: collection of facts, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. The purpose of direct action is to create a crisis that the merchants would be forced to negotiate in good faith. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail , he stated, “There  can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes.” He addresses this to the people who want to end segregation, but do not have a

nonviolent way of doing so. They will turn to the black-nationalist ideologies and turn violent. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, h e said, “Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.” This  means that there is no alternative for direct action because of the social injustices and “deep disappointments” that African Americans are facing. King explains that the people participating in the direct action are determined to participate nonviolently. Idealism is all  things are  constituted by mind and its ideas and that is all people ever come in contact with. King address the concern that he is an outsider and does not belong in Birmingham. He said that he is a U.S. citizen and no U.S. citizen is an outsider anywhere within the United States. The injustices that happen in Birmingham affect other places. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The effect of segregation have treated people very unfairly. For example, women who get lower pay than men because they are born female, or treated like an outsider because they are born as a low class. Everyone is affected, whether directly or indirectly by injustice. King’s goals for America and Birmingham are freedom, to unite the people, and incessant fight against oppression. He wants to remind people that we are all are one country. Attention has to be brought to the eye of the oppressor and rising up to injustices needs to occur. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, h e said, “If I have said anything in this letter that  overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.” He means that he doesn’t want to seem overly insistent and does not want any false statements made about him. He apologizes for anything that is going to be misunderstood or misconstructed. Too many

people are striving for a superficial peace that ignores the problem and only deals with the symptoms. People can’t wait, but must actively break unjust segregation laws nonviolently. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, h e said, “But  I must confess that I am not afraid of the word ‘tension.’ I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal” King goes on to say that negotiation is the exact purpose of direct action. He explains that the tension brought about by action should not be feared because the motivation needed for a society to confront change. He alludes to Socrates and his belief that tension is needed in the mind in order for creativity and intellect to take place. This means that there is tension between races and protesting saying they’ll meet the racism and prejudice. Men and women have delayed their action because they wanted to wait and hope for improvement. In order for change and negotiations to take place, action and pressure are needed to promote change from the status quo. Perseverance leads to reward. The perseverance of African Americans will lead to their total freedom and equal treatment. King believes that being a bystander and not helping is worse than rejecting. He cares about changing the obstacle and finding a way to reason with them and finally achieve their goal. King defines moral judgment as to preserve immoral ends by police mostly being nonviolent in public; act to keep order. According to Moral Judgments, i t defines moral judgement as “the process by which one defines what is wrong, good, zany, absolutely, bizarre, surreal, ethical vs. unethical vs. neutral…are evaluations or opinions formed as to whether some

actions or inaction, intention, motive, character trait, or a person as a whole is good or bad as measured against some standard of good.” In the letter, King explains two types of law: just and unjust. The just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of the Good. It upholds humanity. The unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. It degrades humanity. A law may appear to be just, but is applied in an unjust manner. People can choose to obey the just laws and disobey the unjust laws, vice versa. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, h e said, “We  had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community.” People  should listen to their conscience to guide them between right and wrong. People never to think to look for the unjust laws, but they always follow the just laws. They rather be quiet because they are afraid of what happens to them if they disobey the just laws. He advocates openly disobeying the unjust laws just as they would have in Nazi Germany or in a suppressive communist country. “We  should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal’.” Hitler’s actions were considered “legal” despite the fact that they targeted a specific race. In relation to moral judgement, King views are also seen as relativism. According to Moral Judgments, it defines relativism as “the philosophy that there are no moral rules that apply to all cultures or to all people in one culture and that no country or person should impose their moral rules on any other country or person… so the morality of a given action can change with the person who performs it or that is can change because of surroundings of it.” In other words, everyone has their own moral rules. It also follows the moral of diversity of moral views. It

spreads the moral beliefs associated with peace, honesty, and basic rights. Those breaking the law should do so in a peaceful and open manner. They should be willing to accept any consequences. King believes that punishment for breaking an unjust law, if accepted properly, may make the community more aware of the injustices and act upon it. He argues that not all laws are legally acceptable. He wants people to realize that while the laws may be legal, they are immoral. According to... , it states, “...moral actions should and do have positive consequences, and that it is always unnecessary or wrong to pursue a course of action that harms others.” King said that he’s not an extremist,he’s in the middle. On one side, people are adjusted to segregation; the other side is bitterness, hatred, and violence. King mention civil obedience. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, h e said, “There  is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake.” This means that civil disobedience is the refusal to obey unjust laws and it shows a peaceful form of protest. Most of society prefers a peace where injustice exists, but there is no tension. Few want a “positive peace”, where justice exists because there may be tension. People attacked him because King makes contradictions against values which have been firmly established by society. Overall, men  and women have delayed their action because they wanted to wait and hope for improvement. In order for change and negotiations to take place, action and pressure are needed to promote change from the status quo. He  argues that not all laws are legally acceptable.  His views conveyed by the letter were idealistic and based in moral judgement. There  is no alternative for direct action because of the social injustices and “deep

disappointments” that African Americans are facing. King explains that the people participating in the direct action are determined to participate nonviolently. Idealism is all  things are  constituted by mind and its ideas and that is all people ever come in contact with. The purpose of direct action is to create a crisis that the merchants would be forced to negotiate in good faith.

Works Cited Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.], www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html. “Moral Judgments.” Samuel De Champlain - The Battle of Ticonderoga , www3.sympatico.ca/saburns/pg0460.htm. What Is Philosophy?, www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/ppecorino/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter 4 Metaphysics/Idealism.htm....