Letter to Dr. Martin Luther King

So Happy that you didn’t Sneeze

Dear Dr. King,

We are two university students at the University of Lisbon. 

While it should not matter, we would like to mention that we are white girls.

We are simply writing to say that we are so happy that you didn’t sneeze.

We are so happy that you didn’t sneeze for had you sneezed we would not have had your words spoken in Memphis, Tennessee, calling us all to make informed decisions , such as to boycott unjust companies. We are so happy that you didn’t sneeze for had you sneezed you would not have told us about how you had been to the Mountaintop. We are so happy that you didn’t sneeze for had you sneezed we would not have heard your message of ‘‘nonviolence or nonexistence’’ or been aware of the need for a human rights revolution ‘‘to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty’’. When it comes to inequality we are all coloured people, we are all of the ‘wrong’ religion, we are all the ‘lesser sex’, we are all gay and lesbian, we are all disabled, we are all from a minority political ideology. When it comes to inequality we are all ‘the wrong one’ and in so being we should stand together to say ‘‘that we are determined to be people’’.  So we are thankful that you did not sneeze.

We are sad to say that we still have a long way to go and that in our modern fast passed lives we tend to forget the past and repeat the same mistakes. We tend to forget about the struggles of the past and take for granted what we have. We tend to forget the contribution of great men and women who have helped to make the world a better place. We are a generation that takes things for granted and forgets that there is still much injustice in our own backyards, in our streets, in our countries, in our continents and in our world. We are a generation of bored teenagers and young adults with nothing to do even though there is still much work to be done. The world is ours and yet we forget that the world is ours to make it a better place.

As women we look to you for inspiration in the fight for equal rights. As women we fight for the right to be equal yet different from men. As women we want to be paid the same as any man, or better yet be paid based on our merit, based on the amount and quality of the work we do, and not based on the fact that we are women. Sojourner Truth[1] put it best in her Ain’t I a woman[2] speech when she said ‘‘I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman?’’ or when she contested when someone said that ‘‘women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman!’’ and to that replied ‘‘Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.’’ First and foremost we are humans, members of society. As such we would like to be treated equally so we look to you, Dr. King, as a part of the past that in fact should belong to the future to inspire us in our fight for the equality of people, of women and girls throughout the globe.

You have showed us that civil rights are not only a struggle of races but of all people fighting injustice. That civil rights are about equal rights for everyone.

In the footsteps of Jesus you have shown us that we are all God’s children and that together we must fight injustice.

So just like that young girl, we, two young women, just want to say we are ‘so happy that you didn’t sneeze.’

Daniela and Cristiana                                                                                                       

Lisbon, Portugal 2013

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[1] Sojourner Truth legal name Isabella Van Wagener   (born c. 1797, Ulster county, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 26, 1883, Battle Creek, Mich.), African American evangelist and reformer who applied her religious fervour to the abolitionist and women’s rights movements. (encyclopedia Britannica)

[2] Ain’t I a woman speech was delivered in 1851 at a
Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio