My wife and I recently spent our 4th of July weekend in San Diego with another couple. We had a good time trying new restaurants, hanging out by the ocean and getting away for the weekend. Of course, while I was there some great spiritual/ethical dilemma slapped me in the face.
For starters, there are a lot of homeless people in the tourist sections of San Diego. We walked all around the sixteen block Gas Lamp District and the waterfront and I came across 2-3 dozen people who were obviously homeless. This means they were sitting on the sidewalk in tatterred clothes, pushing a shopping cart filled with their possessions, asking for money or food, etc. This always has the dual effect of breaking my heart and angering me. Later in the day I came across something that magnified that anger.
In San Diego there is something known as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade. It includes many quotes of MLK along the walkway as well as a monument at one end of it. While I must commend it because it is very nice to see something dedicated to, or named after, MLK that isn’t run down and in the middle of the ‘hood, it misses the point of what MLK was all about.
While strolling around the promenade I came upon several more homeless people taking advantage of the shade of the trees. It goes against all MLK stood for to have so much money spent on building and maintaining such a monument while allowing people to go without food and shelter right there in middle of it!
Look at some of the quotes along the walkway:
And these are the tamed down quotes! The nice ones, and it still obviously smacks against all MLK stood for to spend so much money on monuments instead of caring for the poor. At other times he spoke much more drastically:
I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. I choose to live for and with those who find themselves seeing life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying, “Do something for others.”
King admonished young men to become conscientious objectors in times of war. He criticized the Vietnam War as an “enemy of the poor” because it took away resources that could have been used for the poor. He spoke of restructuring American society to ensure everyone had a job because “something is wrong with capitalism as it now stands in the United States.” King was killed while marching with striking garbage workers for higher wages and safer working conditions. He was murdered while planning another march on Washington with the intent of shutting down the functioning of the national government and establishing a squattors camp of homeless people in the heart of Washington D.C. King was followed by the FBI for years because he was considered a threat to the state. How odd is it that the national government now honors him in a national holiday?
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade is a monument that misses the point as drastically as many MLK Day celebrations. As Vincent Harding said,
[S]urely nothing could be more ironic or amnesiac than haveing Vice-President George Bush, the former White House overseer of the CIA, the probable White House overseer of Contra actions, speaking official words in King’s honor. Or was it more ironic to watch the representatives of the Marine Corps, carrying fresh memories of the invasion of Grenada and from their training for Libya and for Nicaragua, playing “We Shall Overcome,” while the bust of the prince of nonviolence was placed in the Capitol rotunda, without a work being spoken about his soul-deep commitment to the ways of peace? – Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero pp. 56-7
We idealize a King that had a dream without getting to know all that his dream entailed and therefore do not truly honor the man, but a distortion of his life and teachings. In a similar way the promenade misses the point. If the builders truly wanted to honor King they would have built a shelter to house and feed all the homeless I saw. They would have hired the homeless in their respective businesses. They would have provided them with a bed to sleep in. As I watched thousands of dollars worth of fireworks shot into the air for 20 minutes of thrills just down the street, and walked on the thousands and thousands, if not over a million, dollars worth of concrete that is MLK Promenade to get back to our hotel I couldn’t help but wonder how many people could have been helped with that money. At one end of the promenade there is a monument designed to dramatize the breaking of the chains of hate and injustice. Let us do so by actually continuing the fight MLK fought instead of memorializing it before it is over.
My biblical ethics class took a field trip to the Civil Rights museum in Memphis and there was a lady who stays outside and has done so for many many years protesting the place. She claims that it doesn’t honor MLK for the same reasons you are saying. I agree to some extent, but I am torn. Having these quotes and a fantastic museum and other monuments will hopefully educate and inspire people to look deeper into the man and the causes he stood for. At the same time it does seem contrary to the things he stood for to spend so much money on these things. This unfortunately seems to be the case with many great leaders from William Booth to Gandhi, that we appreciate their legacy but dont want to make the same kind of sacrifices to live out that dream ourselves.
Rogue,
I agree with you. I think there is a place for teaching others about the work and teachings of King, as well as honoring his life. But, in the instance of the San Diego promenade, when this is done where homeless people dwell on that memorial I think it drastically misses the point! Also, it’s important that his TRUE teachings and work are taught. Often times it is a watered down, fluffy, feel good message that perverts the heart of his teaching.
I remember what Dorothy Day said, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.” I think she understood this. When we start memorializing the work of great people as if they were “one of a kind” we begin to think they were and we can’t do what they did.
The best memorial is a life of emulation. Anyways, thanks for your thoughts. They are appreciated as always.
P.S.- If you are ever down in TN I recommend making a trip to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. It was powerful and moving.
San Diego’s Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade had a profound effect on me. I appreciate the duplicity you mention and also see the same with the words of Jesus.