Hill, Lillee: Diversity

I did not find either piece to be particularly moving.  I do believe that segregation is wrong but I also believe that getting into a war of words is ineffectual and pointless.
   
"A Call for Unity" claimed that the stance Blacks should be taking was the use of negotiations to reach an end to segregation.  However, I believe that was just a cover: the clergymen who wrote it wanted to look as if they were supporting the Blacks, but I got the impression that the letter was just a cover for their segregationist feelings.  Anyone can write a letter.  It is practically the least supportive thing a person can do short of doing nothing.  They were trying to appear to be in support of the anti-segregation movement, which was what, as good Christian ministers, they should have been doing. But, in reality, they just didn't take as strong a segregationist stance as some of the more radical groups.  To me the letter was just a way for the clergymen to look as if they were taking a stance without having to do any of the work associated with stance taking.  In my opinion it would have been better for them to have done nothing. 
   
Martin Luther King Jr.'s responses to the clergymen felt to me quite like preaching .  His "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" seemed like he was preaching on all the hard times Blacks have been through and how they just had to act right then. I believe if you really feel justified in your actions, you don't have to stand before those who are critical of your choice and defend yourself.  You don't have to cite Saint Thomas Aquinas or say if "I (had) lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers," if you really believe you are doing the right thing.  If you feel like you are doing what is truly right you can let your actions speak for themselves, especially when confronted with something as trivial as "A Call for Unity."   They say that actions speak louder than words, but when you don't let your actions speak for themselves, they can be drowned out by the yelling your words are doing.