"Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?" Thoreau expressed almost the exact same sentiment over a hundred years before King. Like King he felt that it was a persons moral obligation to both disobey "unjust" laws and obey "just" laws. Thoreau develops the idea further saying that it is the governments fault that people are pressured into not being able to follow their morals because the remedy for a disobeyed law is worse than the evil created by the injustice. He uses Jesus Christ as an example of someone who paid the ultimate price in order to abide by their morals. Both men recognize that the reason there is injustice in the world is the fact that men of good will fail to act on what they know is right.
King and Thoreau saw procrastination as probably the greatest sin. King wrote, "Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability." They felt that waiting for justice to come about as opposed to working for justice was what was holding back human progress. King found the delay of the justice especially frustrating when the "white moderate" would tell King that " 'All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually.' ". King specifically targets the "white moderate" as the group that he was most disappointed in. This group of people ignored their consciences and, possibly, conflict, because they didn't want to disturb the "order" in their lives. He implies that it is not only the responsibility of the oppressed to stand up against for their rights but also that of the morally conscious who are not being oppressed. The single word "Wait!", is what King feels is what is his movement's greatest obstacle. It is very easy for someone not oppressed to feel compassion for the oppressed; it is easier to say "just wait your rights are inevitable and will come with time," rather than to take action.
