The Voice of the Unheard

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Image from
the Nobel Prize Committee, c/o Wiki Commons

People routinely use Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as an authority to suggest that there is never any justification for making waves. The idea is that he showed that it is possible to make great changes in society without using violence. And in some vague extrapolation, this has been expanded to suggest that there's ultimately no reason to create any disorder or even inconvenience in order to make the world a better place.  This does a profound disservice to the man, who was acutely aware of the necessity of rebellion in social progress. Moreover, while as a Christian he was generally opposed to violence, he was sensitive to why people become violent.

 “I think that we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years.”

I raise this point because there are a lot of people who believe that only "wack-a-doodles" ever become "activists". I realized this a long time ago during a boozy backyard get together with a person who has been a city Councilor in Guelph for many years. After several beers the conversation came around to the Residents for Responsible Development, the battle against Walmart, and, one of Guelph's past leading lights, Ben Bennett. I was completely taken aback when my host mentioned that he thought Ben was a nutcase because he was involved in a ten year battle to force Walmart to abide by the city's official plan.

This surprised me because the man who's beer I was drinking is someone I respect as an intelligent, thoughtful professional. And also because I know Ben really well (he was best man at my wedding) and I know that he is also a very thoughtful, intelligent person who had a career where he was a respected part of an important profession. (He retired as head of the Municipal Waste Association.)

I raise this point to illustrate a bit of a divide between people who are adamantly, absolutely, and, exclusively committed to electoral politics and others who see it as just part of an on-going and multi-faceted struggle between different elements of human society. The fact of the matter is that people forget that just about every worthwhile thing in our society came about not because rational elected officials decided that a certain thing would be in the public interest. Instead, what we consider human "rights" have come about only after hard struggle outside of the electoral process by people who were considered silly or dangerous "wack-a-doodles".

Another dangerous wack-a-doodle,
on a church's stained glass window, no less.
From a theology blog. 

People conveniently forget that Martin Luther King Jr. was absolutely vilified during his lifetime. He was a dangerous radical to a great many people. We forget that he was actually named after a much older, dangerous wack-a-doodle who had a death sentence hanging over his head most of his life and only survived because his monarch (Frederick the Wise) moved heaven-and-earth to keep him alive.  Sometimes it seems like we even forget that he was assassinated.

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I'm raising these points in this weekend editorial because I've been watching another movement that might become every bit as important---if not more---than the Southern civil rights movement in the 1960s. I'm talking about the group Extinction Rebellion. This is a group that is built around the idea that time is absolutely running out to deal with environmental issues, none of the political parties are giving them the priority that they deserve, and, we need to totally mobilize society in order to avoid total catastrophe. As a result, they are committed to pulling all the stops to raise the issue. This has included mass disruption of transportation in London England through blocking major bridges and the subway system. Another example was when protesters in the gallery of Parliament disrobed to show their absolute disgust with politicians who spend their time bickering over Brexit while ignoring the fact that the earth's life support systems are on the brink of failing catastrophically.

Image c/o Mother Board, original attribution to a Twitter Feed capture from Extinction Rebellion.
Used under the Fair Use provision of Copyright legislation.

I'm especially happy to see that Guelph has organized it's own chapter of Extinction Rebellion. It held it's first protest on April 15th. This helped local members "get their feet wet" and to help raise awareness for the proposal to have city Council declare a "climate emergency". No roads were closed and even though it was a sunny day, it was still far too cold for shaming nudity.

April 15th protest, next to the Church of Our Lady in Guelph, on it's way to City Hall. Photo by Bill Hulet

The underlying thesis of this group is absolutely bang on. Time is running out and we need to organize on the same sort of footing that we did in WWII to defeat Fascism. It's absolutely outrageous that in the face of frantic calls to action by the scientific community the Conservative party is building it's brand around sabotaging action to prevent climate change, and, the Prime Minister thinks he needs to build oil pipelines to get the "social license" to do his bit to stop the human race from committing suicide. This is just a tiny protest, but I hope that it will be a harbinger of greater things in the immediate future.

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After 31 years I've finally finished my day job. I hope that this means that I'll be able to spend more time working on stories and editorials. But it also means that my income has dropped considerably. And there are expenses associated with putting out the blog. For example, I just subscribed to another news source, the National Observer, which (with taxes) costs almost $150/year---but is an excellent source for provincial and Canadian news. That's part of the research that I have to do to keep the stories coming. So if you can afford it, why not think about helping out with my expenses by subscribing through Patreon or putting something in the Tip Jar? Every little bit helps. 

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Furthermore, I say to you---climate change must be dealt with!