Martin Luther and Comfortable Silence

Khalil Fletcher

Professor Jamie Lennahan

PLS 135

1 October 2015

Martin Luther and Comfortable Silence

        Racial discrimination seems to be one of the most unstable building blocks of democracy even to this day. Even if we no longer support slavery, there still seems to be racial tensions going about. With the work of many of our great ancestors, justice has been given to the minority party, with laws given to them that granted them just the same amount of rights to the majority party. This justice wasn’t given to them through violence and reckless behavior, or through a mass racial war. It was given to them by simply following the laws placed, while completely ignoring the ones that the majority party didn’t have to follow at all, showing the majority party that they were human and respectful of their laws too and should be treated as such. This was not looked up to by the majority party at all, but through this silence of acting like a regular human being, ultimately had given them the rights they deserved, which has been written and expressed in the constitution, despite the sayings of the people. This act of silence is highly looked up to by any people who wish to preserve the democracy earned by this rather peaceful protesting. Silence, while may not seem to do much towards justice for a single party, it still plays a part even in today’s world, despite how different the tension is between parties as of today. However, it’s how you control you silence is what really matter in a long run.

        In times such as these, it could be difficult to face, or even talk about, subjects such as these, which is why people tend to be more silent about it, rather than doing some action that has a purpose for the greater good. This is what can be called “Comfortable Silence”, as Obama puts in his eulogy for the honorable reverend Clementa Pinckney (Obama, Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney). After a tragedy struck at a well-known minority house of worshipping god, President Barrack Obama gave a speech that not only gave his regards to Clementa Pinckney, but also gave a few words about staying silent about this tragedy. Near the end of his speech, Obama states that “Once the eulogies have been delivered, once the TV cameras move on, to go back to business as usual -- that’s what we so often do to avoid uncomfortable truths…” (Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney). He was telling everyone that this tragedy should not be just looked at as a regular old tragedy, and then everyone should move on and forget, or not talk about it. He goes on to say that “To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change -- that’s how we lose our way again” (Remarks by the President in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney). Again, he didn’t want this tragedy to fade away, and if it did then we may end up in the same place, only in a situation much worse. He wanted to make sure that people looked at this in the right point-of-view, and would ultimately lead to change that could prevent future tragedies such as this.