Rights delayed are rights denied -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

[LostinVA]

Dr. King knew there would never be a “politically strategic” time to fight for his rights. He knew they would never be freely. He knew that compromise that leads to a suppression and delay of right is indeed no compromise. It is capitulation. So he fought for his rights. He gave his life for these rights, because he knew without the fight he and his children’s children may well still be riding on the back of the bus.

RIGHTS DELAYED ARE RIGHTS DENIED.

Alice Paul and Lucy Burns knew this. They knew voting rights for women who never be freely given. They ignored counsel who told them to just wait… there was a war on… there were more important things the US needed to work on. They saw this for what it was: denial of rights. So they fought, and were imprisoned, and were tortured during that imprisonment. But their struggles won women the vote.

RIGHTS DELAYED ARE RIGHTS DENIED.

Countless coal miners were murdered by Corporate and Government goons for wanting to own their own lives. To work without daily fear of death, to work without dying a long death of suffocation, to give their children some hope, to not have body and soul literally owned by the company store. To not have a rich man feast on the fruits of their blood. From their deaths and struggles came labor unions. They knew that compromise with the owners was capitulation.

RIGHTS DELAYED ARE RIGHTS DENIED.

All of these people knew that without basic rights, nothing else can be done. Because everything flows from this rock-solid foundation: humanity, compassion, empathy, the progression of the human race. Compromise of rights is capitulation, no matter how easy it is to think it isn’t so.

RIGHTS DELAYED ARE RIGHTS DELAYED

Lyndon Johnson knew this when he signed the Civil Rights Act. He knew the Democratic Party would lose the South for a generation. But this Texan President signed it.

RIGHTS DELAYED ARE RIGHTS DENIED.

I stand with Dr. King and Mrs. King, with Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, alongside Mother Jones and Eugene Debs. I link arms and march with Matt Shepard, with the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, with the countless men and women who didn’t compromise, who didn’t capitulate, who knew that without basic human rights, the foundation is rotten.

Tell me: Who do you stand with?

[cali]

1. Agreed.

No one should be told to "wait for the right time" for civil rights.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. And let's not forget the words of Coretta Scott King.

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice," she said. "But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" "I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people," she said. - Reuters, March 31, 1998.

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood," King stated. "This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." - Chicago Defender, April 1, 1998, front page.

"We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be," she said, quoting her husband. "I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy," King told 600 people at the Palmer House Hilton, days before the 30th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. She said the civil rights movement "thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion." Her husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement, she said. - Chicago Sun Times, April 1, 1998, p.18.

"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement," she said. "Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions." - Chicago Tribune, April 1, 1998, sec.2, p.4.

"I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is indivisible.” Like Martin, I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others."

We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination. - Coretta Scott King, remarks, Opening Plenary Session, 13th annual Creating Change conference of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Atlanta, Georgia, November 9, 2000.

BTW, this has gotten a strong rec from me.

[me b zola]

5. Thank you so much for the words of Coretta Scott King

"Justice is indivisible"

"We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be..."



We are all in this together :) :grouphug:

[LostinVA]

11. Thanks for adding this!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

12. No problem.

:thumbsup:

[MuseRider]

3. I would find it

impossible to live with myself if I ever asked anyone to wait, it isn't time for them to have all the rights that I have. I do see progress, it is slow but there. Still, this country is only pretending to be what it says it is. It has never really made it to the ideals it was founded on and now it is all that much worse. Wait for equality? What a horrible thing to say to people.

K&R

[some guy]

4. I stand with you

and all the leaders of the past you cited, and all those today who struggle for equality.

:grouphug:

Excellent post (but you knew that when you wrote it...) :)

[sproutster]

6. Amen

[me b zola]

7. Beautiful post

I stand with you, I stand on the side of justice for all. :grouphug:

[keepCAblue]

8. Thank you. Kick and recommend. eom

[BlooInBloo]

9. One quibble: LBJ was *wrong*....

A generation is commonly held to be about 30 years. We're finishing up the SECOND generation of losing them, with only the dimmest prospects that there won't be a third.

I love how a people can collectively just flat-out refuse to admit that they're wrong - no matter how poor, shitty, and trampled on they get. That's ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy. And all because they like being evil. Sigh.

[Solly Mack]

10. Guess?

:)

[LostinVA]

15. Solidarity!

[WhollyHeretic]

13. Wonderfully said

I will always stand on the side of civil rights. We're talking basic human rights not some political policy, people need to remember that.

[JitterbugPerfume]

14. Rights delayed are rights denied

'nuff said

[riderinthestorm]

16. I stand with you. How anyone can say that someone

should wait, or that they should settle for second best "for now" is ignorant.

[LostinVA]

17. Shameless kick

[WhollyHeretic]

18. .

:kick:

[stepnw1f]

19. kick! (nt)

[ThomCat]

20. One of my favorite civil rights quotes

and one that so many people just don't get.

:applause:

[Maven]

21. Kick