Letter from a Birmingham Jail

It would be impossible to overestimate how much we owe Dr. King. He clearly understood the risks associated with what he terms the Socratic method of “creating tension in the mind”. However, he also understood the greater efficacy of such a tactic vs using violence as a means. In his letter, he states “if this philosophy (of nonviolence) had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood”. No doubt about it!
Can we draw any implications from the potential, and largely averted, “force of bitterness and hatred” Dr. King spoke of? Are there any lessons we can take forward on a global scale to begin mitigating terrorist violence? It would appear that we treat terrorism that same way we treat cancer in the body. We only know how to cut it out and/or kill it. Cancer is big business; I often wonder if we are pouring more efforts into it’s treatment than we are into our efforts to prevent it. I wonder if there isn’t some parallel to that in terms of terrorism. Are we really trying to understand it, or are we simply focusing our efforts on ways and means to “kill it”, just as we would treat a symptom and not a cause, thereby making it even worse?
With regard to racial equality, we can no doubt point out ways we have made progress. In general, I suspect that our military may be ahead of the general population, if for no other reason to do otherwise is counter to essential order and discipline. Note I did not say we have eliminated it; as long as there is fear we will probably never eliminate it. Perhaps the motivation isn’t always correct; nevertheless, we need to keep working on it. Further, this business of discrimination for otherwise capable people need not end on the basis of pigmentation in the skin, either.