Letter from a Birmingham Jail Response

My favorite passage in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is the paragraph at the bottom of page six beginning "In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence." He goes on not only to refute this claim by the other ministers his letter is addressed to, but also to make other points in favor of his arguments and his actions. I really like the analogy he uses to directly counter the opening statement of this paragraph. King compares the ministers' assessment of his situation to saying a man shouldn't have nay money because it will incite violence and robbery. This is a very convincing way to make his point because the situation in robbery is black-and-white (no pun intended); though the issue of race seems to have a clear right and wrong to most of today's Americans, the issue was not as clear when King was alive. Drawing a comparison between his nebulous position and the clear lunacy of blaming a robbery victim for the robbery makes the ethics of his struggle clear and difficult to argue with.

King also makes another point in this passage that directly refutes something another minister told him. He says that this particular minister told him to be patient and wait for the right time. King points out that time itself never did anything; it is "neutral" as he puts it. It is people's actions that make things happen, King asserts, and though it still takes time and perseverance to accomplish things, they will not happen just by waiting. I think this section really shows King's passion and commitment to his cause, especially when he equates silence and waiting with sin, saying "we will have to repent...for the appalling silence of good people" and claiming that "the time is always ripe to do right." King wants to make it clear that not only were his actions justified, but that they were even necessary, and I think this passage accomplishes that more than any other in this letter.