Martin Luther King Jr. was all about freedom and I imagine if he had survived the oppressions of his time he might have specifically led a movement to include birds. He was ahead of his time, and if not in actuality then in spirit, he does inspire the animal rights movement. On the internet you can find several quotes from him about animals, such as the one below (although there is no evidence he actually said it).
Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.
It’s not appropriate to attribute words to someone famous to advance your own goals, ever, however I keep imagining that Dr. King would show up to fight for oppression wherever it occurred in any species. We sure need leaders and people like that, and by we, I must humbly confess I mean me.
I dream of him walking beside me as we march to bring awareness to the Parrot Crisis ("Polly" Crisis) which intersects with so many other urgent situations in what is actually being called the polycrisis. Our recent Parrot Crisis Summit demonstrated how the welfare of people, parrots, and the planet are inextricably related.
Though he is long gone, he is with me, not just in my dreams but in others' dreams as well. At the Martin Luther King High School in Philadelphia, they honored him and the poet Langston Hughes with this mural by Phillip Adams (photo below) and this inscribed poem, "Dreams," by Hughes.
One author envisions what would have happened if Dr. King had met Rachel Carson, an environmental activist and writer. He writes, "Sometimes the most beautiful aggregations are murmurations of difference," as he imagines the two of them together, striving to save the environment and birds.
In these cold winter months of North America, I often gaze out my office window and mourn the loss of so many parrots and people, and admittedly the fire of commitment that has propelled my work perhaps has burned too bright, for burn out and despair now walks with me, as does Dr. King.
But upon the winter landscape of my soul, there are always birds, and they cannot keep from singing, even if it is for a freedom yet realized.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
– Maya Angelou in "Caged Bird"
So I keep listening to the birds, because I believe they tell me how it feels to be free.
Well, I wish I could be
Like a bird in the sky.
How sweet it would be If I found I could fly.
I'd soar to the sun And look down at the sea.
And I’d sing 'cause I’d know
And I’d sing 'cause I’d know
And I’d sing 'cause I’d know
I’d know how it feels
I’d know how it feels to be free.
– Billy Taylor in “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free.”
Because of birds and because of Dr. King I can glimpse freedom, not just for me, but for the many others. Their song of freedom lifts me up as if I had wings.
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
– Mary Oliver, “Starlings”
