Guy, Lacey: Diversity

While reading A Call for Unity, many feelings swelled up inside me. Most of those

 feelings had to do with disgust and confusion. It's hard to grasp the fact that people are

 treated differently than others when I've grown up in such a diverse world, but reading

 this made me realize how strongly i feel about people being mistreated. 

   

On April 12, 1963, the Alabama clergymen wrote A Call for Unity to address the

 peaceful protests, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Birmingham Alabama. The clergy

 described Dr. King's protests as "unwise" and "untimely". Those words irritated me. 

How could someone judge a protest as unwise when so many people were being

 treated unfairly? It seems as if the wise thing to do in that situation would be stand up. I

 do not see anything wrong with groups coming together to fight for a cause, especially

 when they do it in a peaceful manner. Also, I believe it is never the wrong time to stand

 up for your rights when you're being treated unfairly. Things needed to be changed as

 soon as possible in hopes that the future would be brighter. The fact that the clergymen

 wanted to move the protests to the courts made it seem as if they saw the protestors as

 doing something wrong. When did acting on you rights, from The Bill of Rights, become

 a crime? If all they wanted to do was push "problems" aside and persecute innocent

 people, i feel as if they were not ready to deal with the changed that was needed. It's as

 if they were delaying the inevitable.

   
On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote a letter in response to A Call for

 Unity titled Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In this letter, King described the protests

 through his own perspective and told the clergymen that he was not willing to give up

 until the injustice was fixed. He addressed the clergymen's misuse of the word

 "outsiders" and went on the state "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never

 be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." I support this statement fully. 

The country needed to come together as a whole to stand against the injustice, because

 we all should  be equal. The rest of the letter entailed King's hopes for the future. I

 believe Martin Luther King's letter was inspirational. Not only did he calmly express his

 opinions, he did it with such poise. He didn't necessarily try to talk down to or condemn

 the clergymen; he only tried to open their eyes to change. In the end, he even

 apologized, hoping no hard feelings were exchanged. If more people focused on the

 issues instead of lashing out, i believe this country would be more open to change.

   

King's words calmed me after being so frustrated from reading A Call for Unity. 

His letter gave me hope that there are people in this world who are willing to stand up

 for diversity, just like Dr. King, and that diversity is something that still needs to be

 worked on today, because it would be horrifying to ever have such racial prejudice

 again.