In calling out racism in America, journalism can be compared to practicing medicine: a physician can scarcely do anything for the sick if he/she avoids contact with them. That said, thank you to The Columbian for printing Leonard Pitts’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day column, “Being good, but silent, isn’t really good at all.”
On this subject, and while writing is indeed an action, words must be more than words. Words must compel people to action. Just talking about or approving of resistance to racism is not the same thing as doing something. That is the cult of the merely verbal. Nonaction is a-spiritual — that is, without spirit. In a time of urgency, nonaction is always fatal, and it is possible that refusing to do good is the equivalent of doing evil.
We Americans must stand up against racism. Now. And, yes, action may bring trouble, but it also demonstrates the clear compelling power found in merciful conduct, for merciful conduct never violates love.
