MLK Jr.’s ‘A day on, not a day off’ Day

The African-American Cultural Preservation Committee invites the public today at 5 pm to a mini-parade in Garapan and a tribute, commemoration, and celebration of MLK Jr.’s legacy in the struggle for civil and human rights at the museum theatre of the American Memorial Park.

Sunday, Jan. 15, marked what would have been the 77th birthday of the Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was barely 40 when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Known for his promotion of racial equality and fight against human injustice, he is less known for his economic views. In Memphis, he was quoted as saying, “A living wage should be the right of all working Americans.”

The theme of “a day on, not a day off” for this day is catching on fast. Last year, in some 80 locations, the Habitat for Humanity initiated the construction of housing for the needy in honor of MLK Jr. day. The AmeriCorp in their Make a Difference Day in October has picked up the same ethos. Volunteer Week in April honors a long list of volunteer agencies and non-government organizations that take a “day-off” their regular business routine to make a “day-on” to address social contradictions. We encourage our radio stations to keep playing Tim Blixseth’s “Heart of America” song this day.

Ironically, MLK Jr. Day circa 2006 sees a transit boycott in King’s own hometown of Atlanta. In the 50th year after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) faces opposition from grassroots organization over its recent decision to pass on the burden of running the transit system on a fare hike. Low-income families are the main users of the service.

The horrifying impact of hurricane Katrina on the members of African-American communities along the Gulf coast who were least able to face the disaster nor served by institutional care reveals a soft under belly on the legal advances made by Civil Rights legislation and U.S. social services. The heirs of the American antebellum tradition on African descent slaves remain shackled to a vicious cycle of poverty and perdition, community degradation and corruption, neighborhood grime and urban crime.

We view the new movie “Glory Road,” about the 1966 NCAA championship game in which the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) sent five black players onto the floor against the legendary Adolph Rupp’s all-white University of Kentucky team. Texas Western as UTEP was then called, took the national championship that year. We are reminded of the rocky road racial relations took even in sports.

But in the despair-laden last year of ‘67-’68, Dr. King linked the Civil Rights movement with protest against the Vietnam War. He highlighted the emasculation of Johnson’s War on Poverty. We saw in him a giant almost overwhelmed by the inevitable realization that all of life, political, economic, and cultural, are inextricably interrelated. To take one aspect seriously is to touch on all aspects simultaneously. Lesser minds and less profound spirits failed to see this wisdom and began to bicker about their territorial domain. The more comprehensive reality that no less than the liberation of the wholeness of being is the aim of racial equality and human justice would not go away.

Dr. King died fighting for the right of workers to earn a decent living. On March 18, 1968, days before his murder, King told striking sanitation workers in Memphis, “It is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis … getting part-time income.” King said, “We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate with daily basic necessities of life.” I hear PSS’ teacher Jeffrey Turbitt in the Amen corner. Today’s federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is nearly $4 less than it was in 1968, when it reached its historic high of $9.09, adjusted for inflation. It would be redundant to comment on the CNMI’s $3.05 per hour minimum wage rate. As a nation, we have digressed in our quest for economic equality for everyone.

The Ben&Tim tandem has billed itself as the “Economy Governors.” One would be terribly partisan not to support their intent and direction. We trust that in the pursuit of economic investments, the principle of free trade shall be balanced by the practices of fair trade, that free enterprise shall be in communion with individual integrity and community pride.

Dr. King’s legacy, notable in political legislation though less in economic measures, is undeniably remarkable in its cultural illumination. In the presentation speech given by the chair of the Nobel Prize Committee, Gunnar Jahn said: “King’s name will endure for the way in which he has waged his struggle, personifying in his conduct the words that were spoken to mankind: ‘Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also!’”

This came personally and painfully to roost in 1968, while I laid in pain in the Infirmary of a southern Ivy League University in Dallas, Texas. My otherwise congenial and portly attending Caucasian nurse declared, “Thank God, they finally got the nigger!” I had been in a car accident and when I came to, the TV newscast was announcing that Dr. King had been shot. At the time, the political right and left were in accord. Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! The King is dead. Long live the King! The right meant that in glee and derision; the left in grief and devotion.

Today will be my Day-On to clean after burglars who had broken into StaRPO’s office in Chalan Kanoa. The fifth time since last summer, the latest break-in at the Saipan, Tinian, and Rota Parents’ Organization place occurred the day after New Year. Carted away this time were an electronic keyboard, all the carpentry, auto mechanic and electronic hand tools. Previously, a TV and a VCR, used by autistic children disappeared, along with an unused new 12-speed red bicycle, a newly acquired guitar, various used and new clothes collected for fund-raising garage sale, food items, toiletries, kitchen utensils and wares. And invariably, the place was left in total disarray as papers from filing cabinets, and books from the shelves are strewn on the floor. Not to mention the destruction of three air-conditioners! Cris, Phillip, Lourdes, Mark, and Maryann, all volunteers from the Immanuel United Methodist Church, are getting weary repairing the broken windows and doors, replacing knobs and latches, and cleaning up the mess.

One feels like George McKenna, former principal of a Los Angeles school, who kept repainting a wall as fast as juvenile delinquents kept marring the same with their graffiti. How many times, Martin, must we turn the other cheek?

The King is dead. Long live the King! Have a fruitful “Day-On” Day! Come join us at the American Memorial Park.