This from AlterNet this morning provides a great overview of the the teachings -- and they were teachings as well as calls to action -- by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Also, this from AlterNet, reminds us that what the media seems to key on every January 15th, is King's, "I Have a Dream," speech before the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. King was not essentially a dreamer. He was an activist; a "...cheerleader for justice..." during those dark and dangerous years of the early sixties in America. Indeed, the article from AlterNet provides:
Dr. King may be an icon within the media today, but there is still something upsetting about the way his birthday is observed. Four words – "I have a dream" – are often parrotted out of context every January 15th.
King, however, was not a dreamer – at least not the teary-eyed, mystic projected in the media. True, he was a visionary, but he specialized in applied ethics. He even called himself "a drum major for justice," and his mission, as he described it, was, "to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." In fact, the oft-quoted "I have a dream" speech was not about far-off visions. In his speech in Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963, Dr. King confronted the poverty, injustice, and "nightmare conditions" of American cities. In its totality, the "I have a dream" speech was about the right of oppressed and poor Americans to cash their promissary note in our time. It was a call to action.
Also, on MLK day, I think it is important to revisit one of the documents in our history, our American history that is significant, pertinent to King's 1963 address before the Lincoln Memorial; the "Emacipation Proclamation."
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