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MORNING MESSAGE
Richard Eskow
This Monday, the nation celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. If he hadn’t been murdered, he would be 91 years old. How would Dr. King view today’s activists?
The words to his “I Have a Dream” speech will be repeated from podiums and in classrooms across the country. But many of the people repeating these words have never heard other King quotes, like this one:
“I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” Dr. King also said: “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”
“We must… realize,” he continued, “that the problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.” In other words, Dr. King was a radical.
A few years ago, invocations of Dr. King’s radical spirit were hard to find. They’re more common today, but even the best-intentioned of these pieces tend to place his radicalism in the past tense. That’s a mistake. Dr. King is gone, but his ideals live on. King’s vision is as radical and urgent today as it was in his lifetime. A society dominated by the wealthy, one that has given so much to the few for so long, can surely do this much for the many. Dr. King’s spirit lives on in every place radicals gather to change the world.
In 2020, we can take back our country for the values we all share - solidarity, justice, and a fair economy - state by state, seat by seat, and vote by vote. But we can only do this with your help.
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