King’s Other Dream

In a thought provoking piece entitled Martin Luther King’s other dream: Economic justice for all, John Gehring of the Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good writes:

As we pause to honor King’s legacy, it’s tempting to sanitize his radical call for economic justice or temper his prophetic words about war. We prefer King as an icon stored safely behind history’s glass case. When his words are quoted these days, we rarely hear the righteous anger of a preacher who denounced the Vietnam War and described America as the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” We choose not to reflect on his warnings about the arrogance of American foreign policy. We avoid an honest grappling with his critique of capitalism as a system that permits “necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few.

Dr. King was an extremist. It seems that most of those who point this out do so as a judgement against him. Those of us who respect him and his work tend to forget it. Last year on this day I reflected on King’s extremism and did my part to express my thoughts about King the Christian and the American.

We need more extremists.

Remember his legacy by listening to some great songs inspired by his life and work.