Letter from a Birmingham Jail & Inspire a Shared Vision

Inspire a Shared Vision’s first ideal is that of envisioning the future. Dr. King sees a future of hope and equality for the Negro. In paragraph 24, he states that “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” Dr. King’s vision of the future is rooted in his knowledge of the past and current events around the world. Blacks have come a long way in society in the United States and continue to march onward towards equality around the world. There for, common sense dictates equality will come to Blacks in the United States with time. However, Dr. King describes this mindset that is entrenched in the moderate Whites and the passive Blacks as destructive. He rebukes the idea that time and time alone will bring equality. He describes time as being only neutral. According to King, time can be either constructive or destructive. He further claims that “people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.” Clearly, Dr. King shares the same vision that the majority of the United States holds at this point in history (or at least, holds openly in public). Where the difference lies is in the time frame. Dr. King blames the passive Blacks and moderate Whites for believing that change will come with time, without reason. “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation(p.24).” It is clear to King that to fulfill his vision of the future, he and others must be willing to work for it. This is what fuels the writing of his letter. Clergy in the church who believe time and only time will bring equality called his actions “unwise and untimely” (p.1). We can see that even those that should be on Dr. King’s side are against his actions. Although they share his vision of the future, they differ in the timeline. The second ideal of Inspire a Shared Vision is that of finding a common purpose. This is difficult for King in the 70’s. Many disagree with his goals while even those that do agree are not willing to work for it. Very few are willing to stand up and put themselves at risk to obtain equality. Inspire a Shared Vision speak of finding a common thread and determining what is meaningful to others. This was clearly a goal of the letter King wrote. King saw that he needed to recruit those that shared his vision but lacked his time line. To do this he described the everyday injustices that the Negro had to endure. In paragraph 12 he described the harassment, the name calling, the segregation that is rampant in daily life. King describes the hypocrisy that in a country founded over the dispute over taxation without representation, the Black man still cannot vote and who has no voice in his own government. A government who chooses to oppress him. King claims that anyone who had to endure this would not be willing to simply wait for time to possible make things better. King feels that if he put the reader in the daily life of a Negro, the reader would feel some semblance of the pain that others go through every day. This personification of the pain others felt, King hoped would lead the reader to find commonality with King and make his vision their vision. This also feeds into Inspire a Shared Vision’s third ideal of enlisting others. They claim that passion and pride drives performance, not metrics. This is blatantly obvious to king and goes hand in hand with finding a common purpose (with others). King is trying fervently to rally not only the moderate ‘Whites’, but also the Blacks that he thinks have just accepted their status in life. King recognizes that rallying a base is crucial to make change, but that he must first get through people’s apathy. King would vehemently agree with Vicky Ngo-Roberti of VMware when he states, “You have to paint a powerfully compelling picture of the future for people to want to align with the vision”. Inspire a Shared Vision goes on to state: “Align your dream with the people’s dream: appeal to people’s ideals, move their souls and lifts their spirits.” This is precisely what Dr. King is attempting. His vision and rhetoric of equality and a better life is inspiring and very positive. He does not preach hate, rather a positive message which would make it easier to rally a base in support of his vision. Inspire a Shared Vision’s final ideal is that of breathing life into your vision. The text states to “Use symbolic language. Plant seeds with your words”. Is this not exactly what Dr King did in his letter? In paragraph 13, King speaks of just and unjust laws. He states that just laws are based in something higher than government, such as God, and that unjust laws go against God. In a still religious America, it would be difficult for anyone to openly argue against Dr. King without also arguing against God. With God on his side, Dr. King then goes on to use examples of local and state governments going against the constitution. Dr. King is systematically aligning powerful documents and symbols in his favor. He then goes on to compare unjust laws with WWII era Germany. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal”. Whether the reader realizes it or no, Dr. King is planting the idea that God and the foundation of the government is on his side, and villains such as Hitler are on the other side. Hence, he is planting a positive connotation with his movement in the reader’s conscious and subconscious. Finally, it becomes clear that Dr. King’s letter was well thought out and expertly planned. Inspire a Shared Vision’s final line reads: “With any speech, practice, practice, practice. Use your energy and enthusiasm. Create excitement. Create a memory.” This is exactly what Dr. King accomplished. He systematically destroyed the arguments of not only his enemies, but the doubts of the moderates as well. He outlined a vision of an exciting and upliftingly positive future. And clearly, since we are still reading this nearly 40 years later, he created a memory. We do not know the outcome of this letter. Hopefully it did not fall on deaf ears and get shoved in a drawer. If the reader truly read and understood the letter, the only possible outcome was aligning with and supporting Dr. King. However, even though we do not know the outcome of this letter, we do know the outcome of the movement. That is, although Dr. King is not around to see it, his vision became reality.