Notes of a Defeatist

Countless times each year we remember Martin Luther King Jr. We recall King’s battle to end segergation, marching for racial harmony, and articulating his dreams with that rhythmic booming voice.

For a man whom we memorialize, it is a great disservice to his legacy that we just focus primarily on a few years of Dr. King’s life. The focus tends to be King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963), reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963), marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965), and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

The three years prior to his death, Dr. King was more active than ever before, so why aren’t these years referenced?
Dr. King spent that time working to bridge the gap between the rich and poor and he felt Vietnam further demonstrated the U.S. ignoring that divide. Dr. King wanted to invoke “radical changes in the structure of our society” to redistribute wealth and power.

“In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People’s Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble “a multiracial army of the poor” that would descend on Washington—engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be—until Congress enacted a poor people’s bill of rights. Reader’s Digest warned of an “insurrection.”

King’s economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America’s cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its “hostility to the poor”—appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity,” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.” (from AlterNet.com)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—” Why I am Opposed to the War in Iraq Vietnam”

40 years later and our government still ignores the immense poverty in our country, instead putting money into foreign wars. How many more years will it take before we have a leader who will force the American people to look deeper and inspire them to ask more from themselves and their government?

tags technorati : Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights, economic justice, media, Vietnam, audio,