Smile on Your Brother
- Dr. King says he's starting to wrap up, which is…yeah, not really true. But there's some really good stuff coming up, so hang in there.
- At this point, King detects that the audience might be feeling overwhelmed. They're supposed to march, and that will be really hard, and then they're not supposed to buy certain stuff, and that could be really inconvenient, especially when many of them will be missing work and risking their jobs.
- Are things really that bad? Is this all really worth it? Maybe no one in their family is even a sanitation worker. Do they really want to do this?
- Yes, MLK says. Yes, they do. Because nothing would be more tragic than to stop here and not finish the job of achieving racial equality.
- And that can't happen if just a few people do all right. Everyone in the audience owes it to themselves and to each other and to everyone, really, to help out the sanitation workers. They're obligated to.
- To illustrate this idea, King goes into full-on preacher mode. He launches into a summary and analysis of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, exploring why those who didn't help the robbed man might have made that choice.
- Possibly they were too focused on formal rules of morality: maybe they were busy going to church or were adhering to religious tenets about not touching other people.
- King even makes a joke: maybe the two unhelpful men thought it would be better "to organize a Jericho Road Improvement Association," i.e., find an abstract political solution instead of just helping the guy (28.4).
- Like if someone tripped and fell and you said, "Oh no, we need to create a Students Helping People Get Up Club!" while leaving the poor person sprawled out all over the pavement. Not so helpful, right?
- Dr. K agrees. But he also thinks that those people might have been afraid to do what was right.
- He recalls his own visit to the Holy Land, describing to the audience how dangerous the Jericho road really is.
- Maybe the priest and the Levite were afraid of what would happen to them if they stopped. Maybe they would meet the same fate as the robbed man. If you've ever passed a stranded motorist on the highway at night, maybe you've felt the same tug-of-war between compassion and self-preservation. "Should I stop to help? Is it safe?"
- But the Good Samaritan doesn't worry about himself, says MLK. He just helps. And that's exactly what the audience should do.
- Only with this mindset, King says, can America become the country it set out to be.