An Injury to One Is An Injury To All

Karlo Silbiger

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

-          Martin Luther King, Jr., Alabama, 1963

Last weekend I went to Washington DC to visit my sister and celebrate with her and my family as she graduated from graduate school.  The day I arrived, President Obama made one of the most historic statements of his presidency when he declared with little prompting and great political risk during an election year that he supported marriage equality for members of the gay and lesbian community.  His decision and the impact that it will have on our country and our politics weighed on my mind throughout the weekend.  On the second day of my whirlwind trip through our capitol, we visited the new Martin Luther King memorial, complete with a massive recreation of King’s likeness and dozens of quotes (both famous and more obscure) from his many writings and speeches.  I was drawn to the one above as a true statement of purpose for the progressive movement, a real mission statement for achieving lasting equality.  And then it occurred to me: it should be no surprise to any student of history that the first non-white President in our country’s 223 year history would also be the first to support complete LGBT equality.

Every single person comes to the table with biases and prejudices that cause us to simultaneously fight for our rights and deny them to others.  Imagine a person who has had to deal with a lifetime of religious intolerance and then, when finally gaining acceptance, dares to judge the religious practices of others.  Or the member of a racial minority group who after years of struggling for basic civil rights looks down upon the immigrants who are fighting for the same thing.  This is natural and widespread.  But the smart leaders, those who really understand the long-term impact of their actions, know that the words of the Industrial Workers of the World (the “wobblies”) rings true: “an injury to one is an injury to all.”  If those around you are suffering from unjust treatment, then you are suffering too from living in a world that treats people unjustly.  The highest form of social activism, in my opinion, is that which occurs when the activist has nothing personally to gain but a better community to pass on to the next generation.

President Obama has had a somewhat schizophrenic relationship with the LGBT community since his election.  In 2008, gay marriage was a major political issue throughout the country, brought about by conservative groups who put propositions on many state ballots (including California’s) in an attempt to bring out their voters and divide this country.  Obama, then running for president, was forced to take a position, and he chose to walk a tightrope opposing gay marriage, supporting civil unions, and opposing hateful propositions, including proposition 8.  There is nothing wrong with a politician taking a nuanced position on an issue (especially one as complex as this), but it became obvious to most of us that the President was in fact a supporter of marriage equality, but simultaneously stuck in a position where he felt that the country was not yet ready to take the jump.  He tried to move the country along by ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the last barrier to full integration of the military, signing the “Mathew Shepard  and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” and appointing LGBT officials to more and higher positions in the federal government than any of his predecessors.  But he refused, until now, to take the final step.

The country is still quite divided on marriage equality, although moving in the right direction.  But more importantly, 2 of the groups that the President definitely needs to attract as strong supporters in November if he is to win, African-Americans and senior citizens, are among the most strongly opposed to this issue, which bring us back to the MLK quote that originally got me thinking.  In 1969, until the Loving v. Virginia supreme court case, it was still illegal in many states for interracial couples to be married.  We are only 43 years removed from the government legislating love based on race, but some African-American leaders have forgotten what it felt like.  Some, but not all.  During the Congressional debate over the poorly named “Defense of Marriage Act” in 1996 (signed, by the way, by Obama’s DEMOCRATIC predecessor Bill Clinton), African-American Congressman John Lewis famously said “You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love.  We are talking about human beings, people like you, people who want to get married, buy a house, and spend their lives with the one they love.  They have done no wrong.”  He remembered his duty to fight against the oppression of others as if he were being personally affected.  Obama took a leap of faith 2 weeks ago that many in his community will be adopting John Lewis’s view of historical relevancy.

Here in Culver City, there is often a splintering affect that takes place in our politics.  Some of us work on environmental issues, others on school issues, others still on cultural issues.  When there is an item on an agenda that impacts one neighborhood, I know that the residents of that neighborhood will be out in large numbers fighting to maintain their quality of life.  When we on the school board are addressing an issue that relates to one school or one group of families, we know that we will hear from the affected.  But how many of us come out to support what’s right even when the outcome has no direct impact on our lives?  How many of us are all around activists with no personal potential gain?  I can tell you from my experience in Culver City that it is quite a small number.  What the President did in making this decision was more than a monumental step in shaping the future of gay rights in our country.  It was also a reminder to us all that our reach is beyond the personal, that our responsibility is beyond the comfortable, that our work is to help those facing injustice, and that our time starts right now.

Karlo Silbiger is the Co-Editor of the Culver City Progress Blog, the President of the Culver City School Board, and the Former President of the Culver City Democratic Club.