We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, January 21, 2013

Martin Luther King on America’s Wars Abroad & Their Impact on Civil Rights At Home

Click here to access article from Muftah.

For me, the thing I most admire about Martin Luther King on this legal holiday commemorating his birthday is how this giant of man continued to grow as a leader connecting one issue with another to finally see the whole picture of rule by a wealth-and-war obsessed ruling class. He grew from attacking racism that denied African-American workers opportunities, to understand that racism was used to divide workers in order to exploit them and that all American workers were exploited by this class; and then his final insight that the ruling elite used wars against workers all over the world. This was the last straw for the ruling class. They had to kill him. 

Of course, he knew that he was threatening them and that they probably would kill him, but his life was dedicated to speaking the truth in the face of lies, to social justice in the face of exploitation, and to liberation in the face of oppressive power. His life illustrated the finest characteristics of human nature in contrast to Obama who is someone who has sold his soul to power for the hollow rewards of short-term fame and fortune. During our time, we desperately need the courage of Martin Luther King to continue the fight against our class enemy, and we need his dedication to the establishment of just, sustainable societies.