Twist on MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail (Not for Actual Use!)

My Dear Governor O’Malley,

While confined here on Loyola’s campus, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities pertaining to the Alcohol Tax as “unwise and untimely.” Since I feel that you are a man of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

I think I should explain what I am doing here in Baltimore since you have been influenced by the view which argues for “One Maryland.” I am a freshman at Loyola University, a Jesuit institute. I was drawn to this school for its urban setting, community service opportunities, and business academics. A scholarship was also extended to me from the school. So I am here because I was accepted here and Baltimore is where I spend a large majority of my year.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Maryland is untimely. You have asked: “Why not wait until after elections to raise the tax?” The only answer that I can give is that we must push for the Alcohol Tax every year, no matter what other political activity may be occurring. Besides, many Marylanders would actually support the Alcohol Tax so long as it was used as designated funding.

The people on the Waiting List know, through painful experience, that funding is never voluntarily given by those who hold the purse strings; it must be demanded by those who need it. For years now they have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in every ear on the Waiting List with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost meant “Never.” We must come to see that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

I had hoped that you would understand that civil rights exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become dangerously structured damns that block the flow of social progress. By not providing those on the Waiting List with funding you are grossly underestimating their potential. They need funding to reach their potential and have the quality of life that most of us take for granted.

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than equality, I beg God to forgive me.

Yours for the cause of Equality and Justice, Devon O.