The Washington Post and The New York Times have picked up on the incredible mismatch between the man who stood for social justice and the monument attempting to honor him. First, there's the incorrect quotation fully explained by a Post editor.
And then there's the far more important crisis involving the de-politicization of a radical social justice revolutionary into everyone's favorite preacher who just wanted black girls and white girls to be able to play together. In the NYT, "Dr. King Weeps from His Grave," Cornell West points out that King stood squarely against militarism, materialism, racism, and poverty.
These crises are still with us. They're with us in our ongoing warfare and our constant pursuit of disposable stuff at the expense of time spent deliberately. They're with us in the form of whole sections of cities forgotten to urban decay, broken schools, and decrepit infrastructure. We are surrounded by abundance, but acting scared and slashing important services that communicate that, yes, poor children have dignity too. They deserve schools that educate. They deserve opportunities and access. They deserve as much as any child.
West has a sense of what King might do, and it points to our responsibilities too: King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.
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