What day is it?
For those who don't get the day off, it's easy to forget what day this is. For those who do get the day off, it's perhaps even easier to forget, and to spend the day shopping or something after listening to the obligatory recitation of the "Dream" speech. Here's a piece that talks instead about the King assassination and the cultural elements common to it and the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, and imagines what King would do if he were alive today:
"If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today-he would have turned 82 last week-he would in all likelihood be in Arizona, marching against the forces of violence...King would be in Arizona for many reasons, but the main one is this: Throughout his career, he was absolutely committed to nonviolence as both a philosophy and a tactic. He did not believe in bodyguards, certainly not armed ones. No one in his entourage was allowed to carry a gun or nightstick or any other weapon. The very concept of arming oneself was odious to him-it violated his Gandhian principles. He wouldn’t even let his children carry toy guns. In an almost mystical sense, he believed nonviolence was a more potent force for self-protection than any weapon. He understood the threats against him but refused to let them alter the way he lived.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't have a dream, he had many. In this day when so many white people are eager to dismiss racism as a battle already won, no one denies we have a long, long way to go to become a peaceful society. We could certainly choose worse models.
"If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today-he would have turned 82 last week-he would in all likelihood be in Arizona, marching against the forces of violence...King would be in Arizona for many reasons, but the main one is this: Throughout his career, he was absolutely committed to nonviolence as both a philosophy and a tactic. He did not believe in bodyguards, certainly not armed ones. No one in his entourage was allowed to carry a gun or nightstick or any other weapon. The very concept of arming oneself was odious to him-it violated his Gandhian principles. He wouldn’t even let his children carry toy guns. In an almost mystical sense, he believed nonviolence was a more potent force for self-protection than any weapon. He understood the threats against him but refused to let them alter the way he lived.
Martin Luther King Jr. didn't have a dream, he had many. In this day when so many white people are eager to dismiss racism as a battle already won, no one denies we have a long, long way to go to become a peaceful society. We could certainly choose worse models.