[ad_1]
Washington today is consumed by political trench warfare, as the House Speaker’s chaotic feud has made clear. Underlying the constant battle between Republicans and Democrats is an even deeper division between those who believe in cooperation and those who think bulldozing the other side is the only answer. After six decades on the front lines of the civil rights struggle, it has become clear to me that only when Americans of goodwill speak respectfully to each other and work together despite their differences can true and lasting civilizations become a reality. Progress is what happens. You should have a right that you cannot do. And it’s one of America’s greatest blessings.
We need to rediscover this element of our nation’s sacred history.In 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was looking up at him from just below the podium. Today we remember that speech as a wonderful catharsis. But we must also admit that Dr. King wasn’t speaking only to those of us who already knew him, loved him, or shared his dreams that day. his words are did not do it I agree with him—yet. The vision he puts into words represents an effort to build bridges to those who made it happen. No share his agenda. And it was on purpose. He understood that talking to people who had reservations about what our movement demanded was the only realistic path to our ultimate success.
Dr. King’s strategy worked. The civil rights bill of 1964 passed the following year not because civil rights leaders denigrated and denounced people outside our movement. It succeeded because liberals sought the support of Republicans in the Senate, especially Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois. The Democratic leadership at the time — President Lyndon Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, Montana — understood that working with Dirksen was the key to victory. Consider what that tells us: Perhaps his most important legislative achievement of the 20th century was not from spouting acrimonious words on the other side, but from making Dr. King’s resolve clear. born from a strategy reflected in a different view than mine. The same bipartisan approach prevailed when the Voting Rights Act was passed the following year and the Fair Housing Act passed Congress in 1968.
Now, some say today that such cooperation is a relic of a bygone era. They say our anger and distrust of politics is so deep that it has reached the point of no return. I simply disagree with that premise. On April 4, 1968, I was busy organizing the people of North Carolina to prepare for Dr. King’s visit to Charlotte the next day. However, he never realized it, as he was assassinated while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. If there ever was a moment when I was overwhelmed with anger and pessimism, it was then. , I tried instead to continue on the path that Dr. King had begun to forge. I still believe he was right.
History may not repeat itself, but lessons can be learned from the past. America’s leaders must find a way back to the approaches that once led us to such bipartisan progress. That’s the road Americans want to go. In a recent national No Labels poll, 92% of her Americans expressed appreciation for living in a country where people can openly disagree. 89% believed that most problems could be solved if leaders from both major political parties tried to work together.
Fortunately, some people in Washington carry a torch in Dr. King’s approach, and they light the way forward. I watch groups and see Dr. King having the kind of conversations we all imagined having when he talked about his beloved community. They hold fast to old and timeless notions of what it means to be a leader. Someone strong enough to listen to people with different perspectives and stand up to those who prefer violence to love. I look at them and see courage, patriotism and wisdom. And I know the message they offer is timeless. The way out of the current predicament is unity.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is the National Co-Chair of No Labels.
[ad_2]
Source link
