Week 3- Monday (MLK Day)

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential and profound leaders of American history. It is for that reason that I am ashamed that we tend to gloss over much of his life. There was a recent article in the Semi that asserted we have romanticized our image of King and reduced him to a Care Bear type personality whose primary message was "Why don't we all love one another?". I agree wholly that we have forgotten the more challenging aspects of King's message; his call for reparations towards African Americans for the century or more of free labor given to the founding of America and his decrying of the injustices of Vietnam. I also think that we forget entirely the human side of Dr. King. King was a man with many faults, trials, and inconsistencies, but all that I was ever taught in school was that King was a kind of talking head who said some really profound things. King was a man who needs to be looked at in every light. We need recognize King's full message and be willing to note his imperfections. I believe that historical figures who are truly great become even greater when we recognize their humanness and are willing to listen to their whole message.
King was a counter-cultural prophet and we desperately need his message even today.