The Black Elite and the Legacy of Martin Luther King
I haven’t been at a computer today so this is late. But I wanted to get this up. I have felt compelled to write about the topic covered in this video for many years but have refrained from doing so. I most certainly feel very strongly that the views shared by Glen Ford on The Real News are indeed filled with substantial truth.
There are about five or so historical figures in this nation that I hold in very high regard. Their desire for human dignity was so powerful they truly changed the course of history in this nation. They lived through incredibly wicked social injustices and literally coalesced those oppressed into great movements against tyrannical and illegitimate authority. And, there was none more powerful than Martin Luther King… Well, Mother Jones, the most dangerous woman in America, might have given him a run for his money.
I don’t believe in hero worship or outsourcing one’s power to another human being. But, I do believe that we should honor those amongst us who are able to rise above the human condition and truly accomplish great things on behalf of human decency and dignity. To truly accomplish acts of selflessness. Whether that is our parents or anyone else who, in some small way, is able to make the world a little bit better for the rest of us. I mean truly better. Tangible results not political rhetoric or hollow promises.
Martin Luther King wasn’t a perfect person. Surely we are all complex, often even paradoxical as King was. But he was probably the most positively impactful person in our nation’s history. And, in countless ways that people don’t yet realize. This was a powerful man with a powerful mind with a timeless message of human equality and human dignity for all people.
On this day, we honor the dignity he fought so fervently to bring to all people. A dignity that is currently under assault once again in this nation and around the world.
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