The Chris Moeller Archives

Dr. King's warning and challenge

If you wish to know more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., secure yourself a copy of a 2007 book entitled "Going Down Jericho Road" and read the thing cover to cover. By Michael K. Honey, the story recalls the final public campaign of Dr. King's life, one in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. If you have any questions about where King would stand on virtually any political issue of our new millennium, this book should reveal to you the greatest truths.

In the ongoing struggle for social justice, it's as if his murder took place only yesterday, yet in a relatively short amount of time, some of the distortions of his life and his beliefs have become monstrous. As Honey points out, most people today, even perhaps a majority of African-Americans, only know about King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the Mall in Washington in 1963, and so probably believe the tireless human rights advocate spent a majority of his time sleeping. He didn't. He worked himself literally to his death in an effort to have America's economic system radically restructured, a goal to which we are arguably as greatly distanced now as we have ever been.

Dr. King's warning: "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

And his challenge: "So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?"

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This performance is a work of true musical genius, but I hate it when the stagecraft becomes so elaborate that the artist has to lip sync.

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Having Ricky Gervais host the Oscars would be the only thing better.

posted by CM @ 3:10 PM