Day for a King

Our society is obsessed with power. Of all the thinkers in human history, no one defines power better than Dr. Martin Luther King???
??? There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposites - so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.
It was this misinterpretation that caused Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was the same misinterpretation of power that induced Christian theologians to reject the Nietzschean philosophy of the will to power in that name of the Christian idea of love. Now, we???ve got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands in the way of love.???
These words might serve as the litmus test as to who is fit to lead our country.
The best way to honor Dr. King is to make his dream come true.

We need to reassert our position as leader of the word by following these words by Dr. King:
??? America, the richest and most powerful nation in the word, can
well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing to prevent us from paying adequate wages to schoolteachers, social workers, and other servants of the public to ensure that we have the best available personnel in these positions which are charged with the responsibility of guiding our future generations. There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital worker. laundry worker, maid, or day laborer. There is nothing except short- sightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum - and liveable - income to every American family. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from remodeling a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into brotherhood. (From ???Where do we go from here????)
This needs to be the backbone of our domestic policy.

We need to reassert our position as leader of the word by following these words by Dr. King:
??? America, the richest and most powerful nation in the word, can
well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing to prevent us from paying adequate wages to schoolteachers, social workers, and other servants of the public to ensure that we have the best available personnel in these positions which are charged with the responsibility of guiding our future generations. There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen whether he be a hospital worker. laundry worker, maid, or day laborer. There is nothing except short- sightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum - and liveable - income to every American family. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from remodeling a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into brotherhood. (From ???Where do we go from here????)
This needs to be the backbone of our domestic policy.

The media is full of chatter about the wonders of the global economy. Dr King was particularly prescient about globalization:
???A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look at thousands of working people displaced from their jobs with reduced incomes as a result of automation while the profits of employers remain intact, and say ???This is not just.??? It will look across the oceans and see individual capitalist of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of these countries and say,???This is not just.???
... A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war,???This way of settling differences is not just.???
We need to remember these words whenever we negotiate trade treaties. We need to revise all of the rules of the World Bank, IMF, and NAFTA with these ideals in mind.

Americans need to be aware of what Dr. King said about America???s destiny
???One Day we will have to stand before the God of history and we will talk in terms of things we have done. Yes, we will be able to say we built gargantuan bridges to span the seas, we built gigantic building to kiss the skies. Yes, we made our submarines to penetrate the oceanic depths. We brought into being many other things with our scientific and technological power.
It seems to me I hear the God of history saying, ???That was not enough! But I was hungry and ye fed me not. I was naked and ye clothed me not. I was devoid of a decent sanitary house to live in and ye provided no shelter for me. And consequently, you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness. If ye do it to the least of these, my brethren, ye do it until me.??? That???s the question facing America today. (From the speech, ???Remaining Awake through a Social Revolution.???)
We need to remember these words this year as we vote.

Religion is a constant political issue. In fact, the Republicans affixed the cross of Jesus to the speaker???s podium at the 2004 Republican convention to show what faith they favored. Let???s see how Republican practices square with what Martin Luther King had to say.
???Dives didn???t go to Hell because he was rich; Dives didn???t realize that his wealth was his opportunity. It was his opportunity to bridge the gulf that separated him from his brother, Lazarus. Dives went to hell because he passed by Lazarus every day and never really saw him. He went to hell because he allowed his brother to become invisible. Dives went to hell because he maximized the minimum and minimized the maximum. Indeed Dives went to hell because he sought to be a conscientious objector in the war against poverty. (From ???Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution.???)

A prevailing political attitude is the glorification of greed and selfishness. Here???s what Martin Luther King had to say about that attitude;
???All life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality: tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or thirty years, no many can be totally healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in America. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way the world is made. (Sermon.. ???The American Dream.???)

To commemorate Dr. King, I decided to include one of my favorite quotes.
We are facing an election. Let???s judge the candidates by how the square with these words.
??? I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other centered men can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the alters of God and be crowned triumphant over war and blood shed, and nonviolent redemptive good will shall proclaim the rule of the land..??? (From the ??? Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.???)
We ought to elect people who adhere to this ideal.

MLK would not have stood still for the resegregation of urban America, the poverty of urban education, the denial of access to health care, the abuse of immigrants, the separation of rich and poor and America's continued faith in violence as the solution to problems at home and abroad. Most of the people he cared most above, janitors and other contingent, low wage workers, get nothing from his holiday. The content of our characters has not been real great either.

I have and crushed evil with my good as a (recover"ED"ing) Catholic catholic agnostic Buddhist doing good for no bad reasons the least of which my eternal salvation God if she does exist will shine decently though recently upon all such alike