Because as he said, "a time comes when silence is betrayal."
That is one of the reasons I and others blog about legal rights, access to the courts, and the impact of corporate power on our lives and our government.
Sometimes the conversation about civil justice gets deeply involved in very specific and narrow aspects of the tort "reform" debate. While this is a necessary aspect of the work, it is equally important to step back every now and then and look at how it all fits much more broadly into a dialogue about justice through the law, and into the even larger movement for social justice in which Martin Luther King, Jr. played such an important role. What better day to do this than today?
My blog is hosted by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy. Originally called the Drum Major Foundation, DMI was founded by Harry Wachtel, lawyer and adviser to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the turbulent years of the civil rights movement. DMI was relaunched in 1999 by New York attorney William Wachtel, Harry's son, Martin Luther King III, and Ambassador Andrew Young.
Why "Drum Major" of all names? Here’s some background.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that "the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct"--the instinct to set oneself ahead of the pack, at the forefront, to distinguish oneself--into a life motivated by service to others and furtherance of an agenda for justice and equality. On February 4th, 1968, King gave his famous speech on The Drum Major Instinct. He said:
...If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school.
I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.
I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.
What made King a drum major in these respects was his willingness to speak truth to power. He was not shy about identifying and standing up against the social inequities of his time, many of which persist to this day. He transformed the drum major instinct into a mission to serve humanity and advance an agenda for fairness and equality, even if it meant being unpopular or standing up against his own government and some of its most powerful players, including Lyndon Johnson.
A staple tool in the fight against societal injustices in this country has been, and remains, the civil court system. People rely upon their legal rights to help secure a more responsive government, one which protects people and doesn't put the desires of powerful interest groups ahead of the needs of ordinary citizens. And the courts provide people with a means to assert those rights.
The fight for access to the courts is about much more than what opponents say in order to trivialize the struggle. They say it is all about money, when really it is all about making sure that regardless of how rich or poor a person is, each person has the right to demand fair and decent treatment. They say it is about enriching lawyers, when really it is about empowering ordinary people so they can fight for what they need and deserve in order to live a good life: physical safety and health, economic security and freedom from fraudulent activity, the freedom to express their thoughts, protection from unnecessary harm, and the ability to work diligently and earn a living for their families without being exploited or discriminated against.
Dr. King said that "justice is indivisible; injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The fight for civil justice seeks to restore balance to an unequal power dynamic which makes it difficult for ordinary Americans to uphold their legal rights. Corporate interests have had more than their share of influence on the courts and our government. TortDeform asks why, shows the benefits of the court system when it works farily, and discusses how ordinary people can engage in acts to demand a stronger civil justice system. In this way it seeks to fulfill one of the lesser-discussed aspects of King's vision of economic justice and equal rights for all Americans.