Essays from West of 98: More Convenient Seasons
Author’s note: this is an updated version of an essay I wrote on Martin Luther King Day in 2018. I decided to republish it because I have a larger and more varied group of readers four years later and because I do not think it is a bad thing to republish something that we are proud of.
As I do on or near Martin Luther King Day each year, I sat down to read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” written on April 16, 1963. If you’ve never read this letter, I urge you to (it can be found here). The writing is powerful and soaring. Dr. King makes intense points and offer sharp criticisms, but he never reduces himself to the demeaning and belittling discourse so prevalent in politics today. Instead, he tackles incredibly tough matters (while sitting in jail!) and leaves you inspired almost 60 years later. There are many things to glean from this letter. But today’s topic is particularly important—the frustration with inaction.
Dr. King addresses moderate factions of Southern society who voiced sympathy for his cause but objected to taking major action. To borrow a line that I once heard on a radio show: they cared, but not enough to do anything about it. This was something Dr. King absolutely would not accept. Many times he had been told to “wait.” Much like a child hearing the answer “maybe” from a parent, he knew exactly what “wait” meant. It was “no” shrouded in a more polite phrasing. Dr. King had been encouraged repeatedly to wait for a “more convenient season” to tackle the most basic of civil rights.
It is this “encouragement” to which he wrote a searing, accurate, thought-provoking line: “shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
As I read these words, I thought of the great frustrations with progress in rural communities that I have heard from aspiring rural leaders over the years. A great idea falls flat. Citizens voice support for events but don’t show up. People seem to care, so long as someone else does the difficult work. Dr. King critiqued a certain group of people who supported freedom and civil rights, so long as it didn’t get too difficult. Yet, his words ring loud and clear elsewhere in life, including here in rural America.
Each week, I see “NOW” as the time for action in rural communities, not merely sometime in the future when forces align properly. Now is each community’s time to see goals and dreams coalesce into plans of action and for plans of action to be set forth, step by step. Whether it’s your plan or someone else’s, now is the time. Do you want to be a lukewarm supporter, whose seeming goodwill is worse than outright rejection? We are always busy. Things are always hard. There are always pressing matters elsewhere in life. There are always immediate tasks in rural communities that prevent us from tackling long-term goals. The more convenient season rarely ever comes to pass. As Dr. King wrote, “we must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
Let’s make NOW the most convenient season for rural America. The time is ripe to do right. How will you use your time creatively?
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.