King's Forgotten Message...

As the nation takes a day to remember one of its great leaders, one of the giants of social justice, I cannot help but think that just a few short decades since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was taken we have already forgotten one of his most compelling messages...as a society, we do, in fact, owe something to everyone; particularly an legitimate opportunity to fully experience and appreciate life and liberty and pursue happiness.

In his most famous speech, King spoke of a bad check written to blacks in America, a promise of equality freedom, liberty, justice, and above all, opportunity. In Montgomery he spoke of ending social and economic depression which the horrific racism of America only served to promote. He lectured us about the importance of providing an education that was not inferior, of marching against poverty and providing livelihood for those stuck in "broken lives in sweltering ghettos." He chastized society for the "normalcy" that left blacks "perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

In addressing a needless war in Vietnam he reprimanded the nation for allowing the brief moment of true hope for the poor by dismantling programs meant to ease the burden of poverty in the name of war when he proclaimed "I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad with war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube." He reminded us that "America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear" and that "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

He spoke of the immoral "glaring contrast of poverty and wealth" reminding us of the words of John F. Kennedy in that those who make peaceful revolution impossible condemn themselves to the inevitable violent reprise. He urged the nation to take "positive action to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice" noting that the once such talk was met with "ridicule and denunciation as destructive of initiative and responsibility", the same arguments used today which he recognized history had already proven invalid.

A simple sentence so often ignored..."We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands, it does not eliminate all poverty." Thus, he called on the nation to create either full employment or create incomes. He recognized the benefit to society of providing a dignity to the individual involving the placing in his own hands decisions concerning his life with the assurance that income will remain "stable and certain," providing the "means to seek self-improvement." He pointed to the problems associated with poor housing, ineffective education, and an immoral distribution of wealth that produced tens of millions of poor in the most prosperous society in the world.

Dr. King recognized it would take a powerful effort by traditionally disempowered peoples, blacks specifically, the poor generally. He emphasized the need for individuals and individual communities to continually strive towards the dream of a truly just America that lives up to her potential and her promises. Too often the elite conservative leadership wants us to only remember that half of the story, because when they can look to the individual for blame, they need not examine how they themselves are also to blame, how history and society have worked to keep the door to opportunity shut for too many people for too long. It allows us to ignore that while "communism forgets that life is individual, capitalism forgets that life is social." It allows us to ignore how racism, economic exploitation and war are "the tripple evils that are interrelated."

As Dr. King envisioned, it is time we, as a society, ensure that all peoples share in the opportunity and prosperity that America has promised. While one must make the effort to cross the mantle of the door of opportunity, it cannot be done whilst the powerful barracade shut that door. As you remember Dr. King, do all you can to see that America opens that door to all, do all that you can to see that all are provided, if nothing else, an equal chance. For when you do, you may rest assured that justice indeed will roll down upon us like a mighty river.

In the words of Dr. King, go forth with divine dissatisfaction and cause America to be reborn...

"Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.

Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice.

Let us be dissatisfied until those who live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security.

Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family will live in a decent, sanitary home.

Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality integrated education.

Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity.

Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the basis of the color of their skin.

Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol will be housed by a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy, and who will walk humbly with his God.

Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.

Let us be dissatisfied , and men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth.

Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout, "White Power!" when nobody will shout, "Black Power!" but everybody will talk about God's power and human power."

and I add...Let us be dissatisfied until all can truly and fully claim enjoyment of those inalienable rights of life, liberty and the meaningful pursuit of happiness.