I Have a Dream

Today, a few days after his birthday, we honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But forty years after his murder his message is lost in the icon of King. Many of us have the day off. People will say kind words about him. Mattress stores will have their holiday sales for people of all colors can now sleep together in peace. People will talk about his dream, but very few people know what that dream was.

Martin Luther King was far more complex than the man who stood in Washington D.C. and revealed his dream to the thousands upon thousands standing in hope there. His dream went far beyond racial equality, equal rights and equal opportunity. It must be remembered that when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, he was a very disliked man. The F.B. I. had been watching him and tapping his phone. What was then called “the silent majority” despised him for the civil unrest he encouraged. We must remember that Martin disrupted the business as usual mentality.

I find it interesting that the same people who say they look up to Martin Luther King and believe him to be a great hero are often the same people who complained about the demonstrations at the WTO meetings in Washington a few years ago. Trust me, if Martin had been alive, he would have been at those demonstrations, would have been a part of those demonstrations.

When George W. Bush was president, he said of Martin, “Throughout Dr. King’s life, he continued to trust in the power of those words [ life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—from the Declaration of Independence, BD], even when the practice of America did not live up to their promise. When Martin Luther King came to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1963, he came to hold this nation to its own standards, and to call its citizens to live up to the principles of our founding. He stood not far from here, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. With thousands gathered around him, Dr. King looked out over the American capital and declared his famous words, “I have a dream.”—At the groundbreaking for the MLK memorial, Nov. 2006

Well GW could afford to praise Martin because he’s dead. Trust me, if Martin were alive now, Bush would hate his guts. Martin would be protesting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and pointing out that it is people of color and poor whites who make up the largest part of our volunteer army. He would point out how the vast military expenditures are crippling our economy and making life worse for those least able endure the recession, the poor and middle class. Martin would be speaking out about the loss of civil liberties and the criminal, yes, and criminal actions of our leaders. And if Martin were alive, you could bet that he’d be raking President Obama over the coals just as he would any president that failed to improve the lives of the poor and disenfranchised.  If Martin were alive today, they’d kill him again.

Here is what Martin had to say about labor, “A Society that performs miracles with machinery has the capacity to make some miracles for men if it values men as highly as it values machines.

This is really the crux of the problem. Are we as concerned for human values and human resources as we are for material and mechanical values? The automobile industry is not alone a production complex of assembly lines and steel-forming equipment. It is an industry of people who must live in decency with the security for children, for old age, for health and cultural life. Automation cannot be permitted to become a blind monster which grinds out more cars and simultaneously snuffs out the hopes and lives of the people by whom the industry was built.” –Speech at the UAW 25th Anniversary Dinner, 1961

Remember, Martin was killed while working for striking sanitation workers in Memphis in 1968. Here are some more of his words on labor: “”The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”
—Speech to the state convention of the Illinois AFL-CIO, Oct. 7, 1965

Here is what he had to say about war: Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.”

You can be certain that if Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today and making speeches, people like John Mc Cain, Romney, Bush, Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and Anne Coulture all would be attacking him. You can bet that it wouldn’t be long before someone silenced his voice again because unlike so many people talking today, people listened to Martin. He had the knack of getting people to do something. That was why he had to be killed back in 1968. He was a threat to the power structure and the status quo.

It must always be remembered that to follow Dr. King is to go down an unpopular road. People will hate you. People will abuse you. People will call you a traitor. It should also be remembered that as we look across the nation, the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. has yet to be fulfilled. Although race relations are better than they were, people of color still make less money than white people. People are arguing today, forty years after the death of MLK about whether a black man can be elected president of the United States. People are still making “lynch” jokes. No, I would say we still have a ways to go before that dream comes true.

The best way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. is to live out his words. Be peaceful, but fight against injustice. Stand up to protect those rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Help fight to take back our government from the multinational corporations. And then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be free at last, free at last, great God almighty, free at last. Have a good holiday everybody.