Martin, But... Not Malcolm

“You can 

celebrate 

Martin

…but not 

Malcolm

Dr. King

fought with 

peace,

but Malcolm

supported

violence”

Well that’s a 

reasonable

assertion if

you celebrate

Gandhi

…but not 

Washington

If you praise

Mother Teresa

…but condemn

Ulysses S. Grant

If you admire

Mandela

…but despise

Roosevelt

If your heroes

include 

Cesar Chavez

and John Lennon

…but exclude

John McCain

and Colin Powell

If you applaud

Betty Williams

and Maireed Corrigan

…but criticize

Pat Tillman

and Chris Kyle

for their use 

of violence

to solve problems

…But if not,

then I see 

disparity,

inconsistency

I’m all 

for peace,

I’m just 

not for

hypocrisy

If we fault

a Civil Rights 

leader for 

condoning violence,

would we 

also fault
Jews for

violently 

standing up 

to Nazis?

Or are we just 

that delusional

to what life 

was like 

for people of color

demanding rights

in 1960 

in America?

If we disband 

the American 

armed forces 

and only fight 

outside threats 

with nonviolence, 

then we can talk 

about how we should 

only celebrate

peaceful 

Civil Rights 

leaders

But unless I’m 

mistaken,

you weren’t 

opposed to
Veterans Day

You weren’t 

opposed to 

using force

to defend rights

and lives

You were just

uncomfortable

praising a black man

for doing so 

against the white man

Putting your life

on the line

to fight for freedom

doesn’t just happen

in combat gear

It doesn’t just 

happen in 

far off lands

We just seem to 

have a hard time 

accepting

that in history,

America has also

been the bad guy

We have ourselves,

too often, 

been the enemy 

of freedom

2 Dec 2018

*inspired by conversations following the swearing in of Mariah Parker (on the Autobiography of Malcolm X)

for Athens-Clarke county commissioner in Georgia