MIA Call To Action
Originally recorded June 30, 2024, at First Christian Church of Albany, OR.
AI Generated Transcript
July 2nd is the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. 1964, Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy succeeded in getting most of their statutory goals fulfilled. What Ralph would go on to write later in his biography, Ralph Abernathy was Martin's second command, he was also a World War II platoon sergeant. He wrote that, they completed everything that they thought they needed to do, and then they moved on to economic rights, but what Ralph couldn't have known then, and what Martin couldn't have known then, is that Ralph, 20 or 30 years in the future, could have been discriminated against because he served in the military.
In the late 60s, early 70s, we know How our country treated returning veterans who were drafted into an unpopular war. We've forgotten an entire generation that went to Korea. And so here we are sixty years later, we have a pretty decent government, but our laws are unfair.
Military service, veteran status, and military families don't receive civil rights. They're excluded from many of the rights that they fight and sometimes die to defend. And to this day, something like every 40 minutes, a veteran will "depart to be with Christ", we'll say. July 4th is always very difficult for me because I know what it's like, and many of us also know what it's like to be veterans, and we (civilians) think that July 4th is our day.
It's actually November 11th. And one of the things that I love about the Civil Rights Movement was that it began just one month after our nation's second Veterans Day. When Rosa Parks was arrested and there was a structure, a community organism prepared to organize around civil rights. Ralph named MIA.
Who knows what M. I. A. stands for? Just shout it out. Right. But Ralph and Martin called it the Montgomery Improvement Association. Soldiers and civil rights have gone together like peanut butter and jelly since the beginning of our nation. However, as I said, 60 years ago we missed the mark. We're still fighting, and as W.E.B. Du Bois described World War I and II black soldiers, "We fight, and we come home fighting." And so I would like individuals to consider what it would mean to create a new MIA, a Military Improvement Association. An organism, a structure organized for the explicit intent of closing loopholes in civil rights, so that our soldiers, veterans, and military families can receive human dignity.
That they they are owed, and that we deserve. For example, right now, if Ralph or his daughter, Donzaleigh, were to try and rent an apartment, say, and the landlord really doesn't like people of color, that landlord can say, you know, all veterans are, M U R D E R E R's, right? And under one part of their identity, they can be discriminated against, if they're military or veterans.
And someone can claim that there's no law that has been broken. You can tell a veteran anything you want. You can discriminate against them in the workplace, in public accommodations, in housing, because there is no consistent protection for military families in law, at the federal level and at most states, including our own state of Oregon.
I've already begun talking to our mayor, Alex, who's a veteran himself. I've begun talking to our state senator, who is supportive, but is not on the veterans committee. I've also tried to speak with Jeff Markley and Ron Wyden about this, both of whom have brushed me away. Because it's easy to turn away and keep our eyes closed, rather than look at our neighbor who's hurting. The 17 to 20 neighbors who are hurting. departing to be with Christ.
On July 4th I will be here at the church to organize anyone who is willing to do things for the people who do things for us. To make sure our rights are protecting those who need it, all of them, not just some of them, not just the ones we like to talk about, but the ones we don't always know how to talk about.
And those of you who took my Bible study earlier this year know what I'm talking about. It's really easy to believe that we live in this great country and everything is moving in the right direction while our neighbor is hurting. I'm inviting anybody to open your eyes with me to bear this burden with military families.
And to do what we can and what we must to close these loopholes so that human dignity can actually exist, in writing, in our laws, and in our society.
On July 4th, if you think of soldiers and veterans, I hope you'll think about the ways they sometimes slip in unnoticed. A large number of veterans do not self identify, do not use the VA, because it's easier to just do things like sell books, and let some of the things that we really want to talk about kind of talk about in our own little campfires.
I hope that you'll expand the campfire with me, that circle of friends able and willing to share this burden and also pick up some of it and help us carry it.
