An extreme blog

A couple of days ago we received a copy of a quite lengthy letter that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while imprisoned in Birmingham jail.  Throughout the letter, King makes many powerful historical connections to refute the opposition's arguments.  One of the opposition's arguments was that King was being an extremist by advocating the equal rights for African Americans.  King responds to this argument by saying: "Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?--'I beat in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.'  Was not Martin Luther an extremist?--'Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.'  Was not John Bunyan an extremist?-- 'I will stay in jail until the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.'  Was notAbraham Lincoln an extremist?-- 'This nation cannot survive half equal.'  Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist?-- 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' "(4).  All of the above are very powerful examples of famous extremists who, in my eyes, were right with what they were standing up for.  But I am curious about the less famous extremists, those who make extreme decisions daily


Right after King gives the examples above, he states that "The question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be" (4).   The answer to this question was meant to be what side King, as an "extremist", would be fighting for, but this inquiry brought a different thought to my mind.  Rather than idea vs. idea, I thought more about the scale of the extremity of a choice.  I don't think you have to be famous or infamous in order to be considered an extremist.  I think i was an extremist this morning when I chose between my Colgate or Michigan State sweatshirt.  There is no neutral ground, no combination of the two.  Whichever on I chose, it would be an "extreme" decision.  Also there is the example of the Huck Finn papers we just wrote.  We couldn't fuse all five prompts into one essay, we all had to be an extremist and choose only one.  I feel that since everyone has to make these types of choices, everyone is an extremist,but feel free to argue against that.