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Letter To Our Graduate Student
From Rev Dr Martin Luther King
My Dearest David,
It brings great sorrow to my heart
to witness the abuse and troubles
you are enduring.
If it gives you comfort and strength,
and I hope it does,
be assured that you have my
sympathy and prayers and support.
I understand your predicament well.
I endured very similar resistance myself.
They deplore The Newsletters
you are writing in sacramento
but they fail to express a similar concern
for the conditions
that brought about Your Newsletters.
No responsible professor or administrator
or politician would want to rest content
with the superficial kind of social analysis
that deals merely with effects
and does not grapple with underlying causes.
It is unfortunate that Your Newsletters
need to be written in sacramento,
but it is even more unfortunate
that the FAKE, shallow white liberal fascists
left you with no alternative.
You sought a dialogue with them,
but they consistently refused
to engage in good faith negotiation.
When that FAKE, shallow white women's libber
rudely and offensively
pointed her finger in your face and yelled,
"calling a white woman a women's libber
IS JUST AS BAD AS
calling a black man the nword,"
you had no alternative except
to prepare Your Newsletters.
Indeed, you were fighting for me
and for my honor and for the honor
of all African Americans.
You were defending the cause
for which I sacrificed my life
and for which countless African Americans
suffered and sacrificed.
It is patently offensive to me and,
I believe, to all thoughtful African Americans,
to draw a MORAL EQUIVALENCE
between the sufferings and indignities of slavery
and the complaints of the privileged
white women's libber, whatever they may be.
And, in so defending me
and my African American brothers and sisters,
you have proven yourself to be my brother
and the brother of all African Americans.
And, when that
FAKE, shallow, priviliged white women's libber
rudely and offensively
pointed her finger in your face and yelled,
"White men have it coming to them !"
she proved that she is not your sister,
not my sister, not the sister of ANY African American,
not the sister of anyone who loves justice,
for justice denied to anyone
is justice denied to everyone !
When you wrote Your Newsletters,
you attempted to break
the bondage of myths and half truths
told by the FAKE, shallow white liberal fascists
and lift that state university community
to the unfettered realm of creative analysis
and objective appraisal.
Lamentably, David, it is a historical fact
that privileged groups seldom
give up their privileges voluntarily,
and the FAKE, shallow, white women's libbers
are definitely a privileged group.
Diane Ravitch will document that next year,
David, in a book she's working on now,
called "The Troubled Decade",
and in a book she'll write in 21 years,
which will be called "The Language Police".
The liberal fascists on the campuses
are enforcing an oppressive
thought and word censorship.
We know through painful experience
that freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor.
Frankly, I have yet to engage
in a Newsletter writing campaign
that was "well timed" in the view
of those who have not suffered unduly
from the disease of campus liberal fascism.
For years I have heard the word "Wait!"
It rings in the ear of every Newsletter writer
with piercing familiarity.
This "Wait!" has almost always meant "Never."
We must come to see,
with one of our distinguished jurists, that
"justice too long delayed is justice denied."
And I must tell you, David,
that you will be denied justice
until well into 2010.
After that, God only knows.
David, there are two types of laws:
just and unjust.
I would be the first to advocate
obeying just laws.
Conversely, one has a moral responsibility
to disobey unjust laws.
I would agree with St. Augustine that
"an unjust law is no law at all."
All shallow, FAKE, liberal fascist censorship laws
are unjust
because censorship distorts the soul
and damages the personality
and distorts and damages Newsletter writing
(and all forms of expression)
and their meaning and impact.
Sometimes a law is just on its face
and unjust in its application.
For instance, the president of that
state university
intimidated your faculty advisor
into resigning from that position.
Since your organization was required
to have a faculty advisor,
you then no longer had an organization.
Now there is nothing wrong
in having an ordinance which requires
a faculty advisor for a student organization.
But such an ordinance becomes unjust
when it is used to
censor a Newsletter Writer
and deny a Newsletter Writer
the First Amendment privilege
of peaceful writing, publishing, and distributing.
You were absolutely right, David,
to ignore them and continue
writing, publishing, and distributing
right there on that state university campus,
just as if you still has a student organization.
Of course, there is nothing new
about this kind of civil disobedience.
Socrates practiced civil disobedience.
We should never forget
that everything Adolf Hitler did
in Germany was "legal"
and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did
was "illegal."
It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew
in Hitler's Germany.
Even so, I am sure that,
had I lived in Germany at the time,
I would have aided and comforted
my Jewish brothers.
I must confess that over the past few years
I have been gravely disappointed
with the white moderate professors
who lives by a mythical concept of time
and who constantly advises the Newsletter Writer
to wait for a "more convenient season."
Shallow understanding from people of good will
is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding
from people of ill will.
Of Course, David,
the shallow, FAKE, liberal campus fascists
practice INTENTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDING
and INTENTIONAL MISREPRESENTATION.
They understand you. They are clever.
But they INTENTIONALLY PRETEND
to misunderstand you
and say all kinds of horrible things
about you that they KNOW are untrue.
I had hoped that the white moderate professors would understand
that law and order exist for the purpose of
establishing justice and enabling Newsletter writing
and other forms of Free Speech
and that when they fail in this purpose
they become the dangerously structured dams
that block the flow of social progress.
I had hoped that the white moderate professors
would understand that the present tension
on that state university campus
is the necessary phase of the transition
from an obnoxious negative peace
and oppressive condition of censorship,
in which the Newsletter Writter
passively accepted his unjust plight
to a substantive and positive peace
in a campus environment free of censorship
in which all administrators, professors, and politicians
will respect the dignity and worth of Newsletter Writers.
Actually, we who engage in nonviolent Newsletter Writing
are not the creators of tension.
We merely bring to the surface
the hidden tension that is already alive.
We bring it out in the open,
where it can be seen and dealt with.
In their statements they assert
that your Newsletter Writing,
even though peaceful,
must be condemned because it precipitates violence.
But is this a logical assertion ?
Isn't this like condemning a robbed man
because his possession of money
precipitated the evil act of robbery?
(like when limbaugh steals your ideas next year in 1983)
Isn't this like condemning Socrates
because his unswerving commitment to truth
and his philosophical inquiries
precipitated the act by the misguided populace
in which they made him drink hemlock?
We must come to see that,
as the federal courts have consistently affirmed,
it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts
to gain his basic constitutional rights,
inluding the right to write and distribute Newsletters,
because this quest may precipitate violence.
Society must protect the robbed
and punish the robber.
Society must protect The Newsletter Writer
and punish limbaugh
and the FAKE, shallow, liberal campus fascists.
I had also hoped that the
moderate liberal white professors
would reject their myth concerning time
in relation to the struggle
for freedom for Newlsetter Writers
but the entire world view
moderate liberal white professors
is mythical.
More and more I feel
that the people of ill will, specifically,
the shallow, FAKE, liberal campus fascists,
have used time much more effectivevly
than have the people of good will, specifically,
moderate white professors.
We will have to repent in this generation
not merely for the hateful words and actions
of the bad people
such as that state university's
blindly ambitious president
and evil lawyer dean of students,
but for the appalling silence
of the good people, such as
moderate white professors.
David, that evil university president lusts
to be chosen this month as chancellor
of the entire statewide university system,
but they will chose
a 36 year old girl instead,
for politically correct reasons,
and she will resign in (RESEARCH THIS)
in a scandal.
We must use time creatively, David,
as you are doing in your Newsletter Writing,
in the knowledge that
the time is always ripe to do right.
Even when you are sixty years old,
after justice was denied to you for 28 years,
the time will be ripe for them to start doing right
by admitting you into a doctoral program.
Now is the time to lift our educational policy
from the quicksand of politically correct censorship
to the solid rock the solid rock of Freedom of Speech
exercised creatively and responsibly
in the form of Newsletter Writing
and other forms of Free Speech.
They speak of your activity in sacramento
as extremist.
At first I was rather disappointed
that fellow academics
would see your nonviolent efforts
as those of an extremist.
I began thinking about the fact that you stand
in the middle of two opposing forces
in the university community.
One is the force of complacency,
made up in part of academics who,
as a result of long years of
meaningless work oppressive to their souls,
are so drained of self respect
and a sense of "somebodiness"
that they have adjusted to the
politically correct, FAKE, liberal fascist nonsense;
and in part of a few middle class academics who,
because of a degree of academic and economic security
and because in some ways they profit by
oppressive liberal fascist politically correct censorship,
have become insensitive to the problems of
Newsletter Writers and the mass of Devotees of Truth.
The other force is one of bitterness and hatred,
like the white women's libber
who rudely and offensively
stuck her finger in your face and yelled,
"White men have it coming to them !",
and like the lawyer dean of students
who crowed about quashing your organization surreptiously,
and like that university president
obsessed with being selected chancellor.
They come perilously close to advocating violence,
and, indeed, in the case of the
lawyer dean of students,
he did advocate violence
when he sent students to intimidate you.
You have tried to stand between these two forces,
saying that you need to emulate
neither the "do nothingism"
of the liberal moderate academic
nor the hatred of the rabid women's libber
frothing at the mouth
nor the despair of the blindly ambitious
state university president
who will not be chosen chancellor.
For there is the more excellent way of
excellent Newsletter Writing
and nonviolent exercise of Freedom of Speech.
I am grateful to God that,
through the influence of
your New York City cultural heritage,
excellent Newsletter Writing
became an integral part of your struggle.
David, if your repressed
thoughts and ideas and feelings
are not expressed
by nonviolent Newsletter Writing,
then they will seek expression
through violence;
this is not a threat but a fact of history.
So I have not said to you:
"Get rid of your thoughts and ideas and feelings."
Rather I have tried to say
that this normal and healthy discontent
can be channeled into the creative outlet
of excellent nonviolent Newsletter Writing.
And now this approach is being termed extremist.
But though I was initially disappointed
at your being categorized an extremist,
as I continued to think about the matter
I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction
from the label.
Was not Jesus an extremist for love and truth ?
What would Jesus have done ?
I asked Jesus what he would have done
and He replied to me,
"I would have written Newsletters."
Was not Martin Luther an extremist:
"Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise,
so help me God. I must write Newsletters."
And Abraham Lincoln:
"This nation cannot survive
as politically correct half-wits
and censored half-assed universities."
And Thomas Jefferson
"We hold this truth to be self-evident,
that our graduate student wrote The Newsletters
that inspired rush limbaugh,
the big fat idiot,
and created equally the national dialogue
against censorship on campuses
and against other forms of liberal fascism."
So the question is not
whether we will be extremists,
but what kind of extremists we will be.
Will be be extremists
for liberal fascist nonsense
or for truth ?
Will we be extremists
for liberal fascist censorship
or for excellent Newsletter writing ?
Perhaps the campuses, the nation and the world
are in dire need of excellent Newsletter Writers.
I had hoped that the moderate liberal professor
would see this need.
Perhaps I was too optimistic;
perhaps I expected too much.
I suppose I should have realized that few
of those shallow, FAKE privileged liberal fascists
can understand the intelligent reasonings
and thoughtful expressions
of the oppressed Newsletter Writer,
and still fewer have the vision to see
that liberals are in reality unjust fascists
who must be rooted out by strong,
persistent and determined action.
I am thankful, however, that some of our
our sisters and brothers
have grasped the meaning
of intelligent and responsible Free Speech
and of the danger of liberal fascist censorship
and have committed themselves
supporting and practicing Free Speech
and ending liberal fascist censorship.
They are still all too few in quantity.
but they are big in quality.
Some - such as Diane Ravitch and Dinesh D'Souza -
have written about our struggle
in eloquent and prophetic terms.
Unlike so many of the moderate liberal professors,
they have recognized the urgency of the moment
and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes
to combat the absurd nonsense of liberal fascist
and liberal fascist censorship,
and to support Newsletter Writers like you.
Let me take note of my other major disappointment.
I have been so greatly disappointed with
rush limbaugh, the mean-spirited, big fat idiot,
who will steal your ideas
and throw you under the bus
rather than acknowledge
the credit that is so certainly due to you.
David, when you were suddenly catapulted
into the leadership of the anti-censorship movement
in sacramento, ca, in 1982,
I felt you would be supported
by professors and administrators.
Instead, some have been outright opponents,
refusing to understand, or, more accurately,
pretending to misunderstand,
INTENTIONALLY MISUNDERSTANDING
the importance of Freedom of Speech
and of excellent Newsletter Writing,
and INTENTIONALLY MISREPRESENTING you, David,
the leader of the anti-censorship movement at that time.
All too many others have been
more cautious than courageous
and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security
of the ivory tower walls.
In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon you,
I have watched while academics stand on the sideline
and mouth pious irrelevancies
and sanctimonious trivialities.
In the midst of your mighty struggle
to rid our campuses of liberal fascist censorship,
I have heard many academics say,
"Those are issues with which
the university community has no real concern."
Where were their voices when
the lips of the university president
dripped with words of interposition and nullification,
when he nullified your organization
by intimidating your faculty advisor into resigning ?
Where were they when comstock the attorney dean of students
gave a clarion call for hatred of you,
sending students and professors to intimidate and threaten you ?
Where were their voices of support
when our beloved beleagured and weary Newsletter Writer
decided to rise from the dark dungeons
of offensive verbal abuse and liberal fascist censorship
to the bright hills of creative Newsletter Writing ?
Yes, David, these questions are still in my mind.
In deep disappointment I have wept over
the absurdity of our campuses
where the shallow, FAKE liberal fascists
celebrate diversity in all things
except for diversity in ideas !
But the judgment of God
is upon the universities as never before.
If today's universities do not recapture
the intellectual spirit of the early universities,
they will lose their authenticity,
forfeit the loyalty of millions,
and be dismissed as an irrelevant
politically correct club
with no meaning for the twenty-first century.
Every day I meet young people like Dinesh D'Souza
whose disappointment with the universities
has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once agin been too optimistic.
Are universities too inextricably bound to the status quo
to save our nation and the world
from politically correct nonsense ?
I have no despair about the future.
I have no fear about the outcome
of your struggle in sacramento.
even if your motives
were INTENTIONALLY MISUNDERSTOOD
and INTENTIONALLY MISREPRESENTED.
Abused and scorned though you may be, David,
your destiny is tied up with America' destiny.
Before D'Souza wrote "Illiberal Education"
you were here.
Before the pen of Ravitch
etched the majestic words
of "The Language Police"
across the pages of education history,
you were here.
For more than two and a half decades
you labored in this country
at barely subsistence wage,
practically at slave wages,
while suffering gross injustices
and shameful humiliation -
and yet out of a bottomless vitality
you continue to thrive and develop.
If the inexpressible cruelties
of liberal fascism
and political persecution
could not stop you,
the opposition you now face
will surely fail.
David, I commend you for your sublime courage,
your willingness to suffer
and your amazing discipline
in the midst of great provocation.
One day the universities
will recognize their real heroes.
They will be the David Scullys,
with the noble sense of purpose
that enables you to face
jeering and hostile campus mobs,
and with the agonizing loneliness
that characterizes the life of the pioneer.
You will be 59 years old, oppressed and battered,
applying to a Doctoral Program.
David, you will be thrown off a bus in Alaska in 1991
through absolutely no fault of your own,
through absolutely no provocation of your own,
by a crazed and hostile black female driver.
Since you are not paranoid and do possess a healthy mind,
you will not in any way suspect
that her action was part of a conspiracy;
not, at least, until 2010
by which time you will have concluded
that a conspiracy certainly has existed
and you will then reevaluate all such incidents.
You will conclude that it is likely
that she was part of that conspiracy,
which will be sometimes amorphous and ad hoc,
and often deliberate and planned.
You will handle that situation, David,
in the best American tradition,
just as you handled that offensive situation
at the university campus in 1991.
You will handle it by Letter Writing.
You will write a letter to her supervisor.
You will eventually work as a driver for that bus company.
After she crashes a bus,
they will make her a dispatcher
and you will work as a driver
under her supervision as a dispatcher.
She will never apologize to you
for rudely and wrongly screaming and yelling at you
and having you removed from the bus.
David, one day the universities will know
that when you, as an 11 year old boy,
sat down at a lunch counter
with your African American coworker,
you were in reality standing up
for what is best in the American dream.
Never before have I written so long a letter,
except for the one I wrote from a Birmingham jail.
I'm afraid it is much too long
to take your precious time.
I can assure you that it would have been much shorter
if I had been writing
from a hot desk way down you know where,
but up here I'm free to do whatever I please
with no oppressive liberal fascist censorship.
Up here the Inspiration is simply Divine,
and there is no higher calling
than writing long Letters and Newsletters,
thinking long, uncensored thoughts,
and even praying long, uncensored prayers.
Let us all hope that the dark clouds of liberal fascism
will soon pass away
and the deep fog of INTENTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDING
and INTENTIONAL MISREPRESSENTATION
practiced by the liberal fascists
will be lifted from our fear-drenched universities,
and in some not too distant tomorrow
the radiant stars of love of learning
and the sisterhood and brotherhood
of thoughtful and reasonable education dissidents
will shine over our great nation
with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Quality In Education
Martin Luther King, Jr.
OK
Very Easily.