[K] Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dear Friends,

The Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial was suppose to be officially opened this weekend but the opening has been delay by hurricane Irene.  Nevertheless, I have been thinking about Reverend King, and how I wish we had more leaders like him.  They would be especially useful today.  I just read his "Where do we go from here" speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on August 16, 1967.  At that time, I was getting ready for my senior year in college, the Vietnam war was ripping both Vietnam and the United States apart, albeit in very different ways.  Looking back I am appalled at how little things have changed and how applicable Reverend King's words are today.  You can read this speech in its entirety here.  Below I have several quotes from this speech with some of my own thoughts.

In our country today, we use power as a weapon, primarily against the poor and the "other".  We have not heeded Reverend Kings' words on this subject.

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

Reverend King was hopeful that we were past the place where we believed that the poor deserved to be poor, we have unfortunately probably gone backwards.  Certainly the Republican Party has.  I cannot imagine the reaction that today's Republican leaders would have to this suggestion.  

We must develop a program that will drive the nation to a guaranteed annual income. Now, early in this century this proposal would have been greeted with ridicule and denunciation, as destructive of initiative and responsibility. At that time economic status was considered the measure of the individual's ability and talents. And, in the thinking of that day, the absence of worldly goods indicated a want of industrious habits and moral fiber. We've come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system... Now our country can do this. John Kenneth Galbraith said that a guaranteed annual income could be done for about twenty billion dollars a year. And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth.  

Reverend King anticipated the problem of being called a communist or a socialist and deals with it in a way that I wish President Obama would.

I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about "Where do we go from here," that we honestly face the fact that the Movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's market place. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, "Who owns the oil?" You begin to ask the question, "Who owns the iron ore?" You begin to ask the question, "Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two thirds water?" These are questions that must be asked...

Now, don't think that you have me in a "bind" today. I'm not talking about Communism.

What I'm saying to you this morning is that Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the Kingdom of Brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of Communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated. 

In other speeches and writings, Reverend King expanded on the three evils concepts.  This idea is summarized on the website of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (here) as follows:

Poverty – unemployment, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, infant mortality, slums…
Racism – prejudice, apartheid, ethnic conflict, anti-Semitism, sexism, colonialism, homophobia, ageism, discrimination against disabled groups, stereotypes…
Militarism – war, imperialism, domestic violence, rape, terrorism, human trafficking, media violence, drugs, child abuse, violent crime…

During the protest surrounding the Vietnam war, the constant refrain from the supporters of the war was "America love it or leave it".  Reverend King offers a far better solution.  One where we face our problems and improve ourselves.

So, I conclude by saying again today that we have a task and let us go out with a "divine dissatisfaction." Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. Let us be dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family is living in a decent sanitary home. Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality, integrated education. Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity. Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character and not on the basis of the color of their skin. Let us be dissatisfied. Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol houses a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy and who will walk humbly with his God. Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together. and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid. Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout "White Power!" - when nobody will shout "Black Power!" - but everybody will talk about God's power and human power. 

I am once again inspired by Reverend King and I certainly intend to go out with "divine dissatisfaction" and do what I can to change our world.

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal