The King Controversy

On this holiday, I took the opportunity to visit my local bagel shop for breakfast. The place is owned by Colombian immigrants, and the coffee is perfect. As I tuck into my poppy seed bagel, I overhear a loutish middle-aged man talking on his cell phone. He makes a crack about Dr. King and infidelity.

I wonder if this jerk has any idea how small such allegations are in comparison to the courage, wisdom, and leadership that this great man put into the service of America. I also wonder if he realizes that the FBI had King under illegal surveillance, much as the NSA is illegally tapping the phones and communications of Americans today.

Much has changed since King sat in Birmingham's jail; but it is shocking to recognize how far backwards we have traveled under President Bush.

America is once again mired in a war we cannot win - a war marked from the beginning by intelligence failures and ineffective leadership, and one that many Americans see as both strategically and morally questionable.

It seems strange to think of King in any context other than that of race relations and civil rights, but of course it was his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam war that drew him into the greatest controversy of his last years. His allies in the civil rights movement stood by President Johnson and refused to criticize the war. King was scolded by the NY Times and Washington Post to stick with civil rights and stay out of the foreign policy debate.

What made King controversial then, and even today, was his courageous and unwavering commitment to principles of social justice and non-violence.

It is also what made him the greatest American of the 20th century.

| +Save/Share | |