/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3318612/MLKmeme2.0.png?resize=640%2C320&ssl=1)
Founder of the Politics for the People free educational series and book club for independent voters. Chair of the New York County Independence Party.
Founder of the Politics for the People free educational series and book club for independent voters. Chair of the New York County Independence Party.
Thanks for this quote. People often forget that Dr. King was anti-war and anti-militarism. It was a very heroic position at the time in addition to his opposition to poverty and racism and his willingness to build a multi-racial movement to push for legislative change. He supported the movement in South Africa and urged the boycotting of South African business and isolation which was quite effective.
There was a great editorial in yesterday’s Arizona Republic by Linda Valdez, one of the paper’s columnists. A woman in her church reminded Linda that “MLK was a womanizer, you know.”
Linda’s response:
“Saints and icons don’t change the world. That’s done by men and women. Flawed and vulnerable. Fallen and redeemed. Broken and healed.
That’s why I don’t particularly care whether the womanizer charge is true. It doesn’t diminish King’s accomplishments. But it does help us remember that a stone statue did not give voice to a dream. A man did.”
It reminds me of the fact that we are all flawed, some more than others, that despite that we can do some good, that formidable obstacles take a long time to overcome, and that the challenge of recapturing a governance establishment and process willing and able to deal effectively with the diverse nation we have become is surely one of those formidable mountains to climb. It does appear that the independents must be the sustainable motive power to move us up that slope. Flaws and all. Perfection in human affairs, it seems, belongs on another planet.