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Dishonoring MLK's Legacy
What do Beck, Palin, and the NRA have to do with the 1963 March on Washington?
Flamboyant talk-show host Glenn Beck has called for a national rally on the anniversary at the exact same location as the historic protest, the Lincoln Memorial. Beck's rally theme is "Restoring Honor." According to his website, this "celebration of America" won't be political. Well then, why have Sarah Palin scheduled to deliver the keynote speech, and why is the National Rifle Association endorsing this right-wing spectacle?
From what I can gather, these folks think that America can restore its honor by strengthening individual virtue, especially if enough people come to Washington on Aug. 28 to listen to inflammatory speeches. Or pick up copies of Beck's new book "The Plan," which he'll launch at this absurd event.
What do Beck, Palin, and the NRA have to do with the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered the landmark "I Have a Dream" speech? Nothing. Beck has admitted not realizing that the legendary March occurred on Aug. 28. He credits "divine providence" for having his rally/book launch converge with such a historic event. Beck now proclaims that he is working "to finish the job" that was at the heart of King's poetic vision.
Glenn Beck claims that King's ideas have been corrupted and that he will resurrect MLK's true spirit. Beck's revisionist history discards King's emphasis on social justice, instead emphasizing individual Christian salvation. Beck even reached out to King's distant relatives, including a niece. After questioning her several times, he got her to say that King was not about social justice or government redistribution of the wealth.
To grasp MLK's legacy, it's best to read King's own words. No one can believe Beck's interpretation of King's legacy if they review a speech delivered four months after the March on Washington, in which King said, "We're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly…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."
If Glenn Beck sincerely wants to advance the Dr. King's vision and the March on Washington's legacy, he could go to Detroit on Aug. 28. There Rev. Jesse Jackson, one of King's lead organizers, and the United Auto Workers (the union was one of the main sponsors of the 1963 March on Washington) will kick off a campaign to rebuild America with jobs, justice, and peace. Unlike Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally/book launch, the Detroit march will echo the civil rights movement's call to invest in opportunity for all Americans.
If Beck doesn't want to leave Washington, he should visit the "Celebrate the Dream" event near his own rally. There, Americans will read and listen to the words of Dr. King in a more appropriate tribute. Finally, since Beck apparently likes to talk to members of Dr. King's family, he should visit the "Reclaim the Dream" rally that day. Martin Luther King III will join other leaders there to commemorate King's authentic social justice vision.
There's nothing virtuous or honorable in trying to appropriate the legacy of a man who gave his life for his beliefs. Instead of proclaiming "divine providence" upon learning of this scheduling blunder, Beck should have admitted his own ignorance and held his own rally with his own plan, as his vision for America has nothing in common with King's. It's not too late for Beck to change course. If he does, it could even mark the first step to the virtuous action that Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally/book launch is supposed to advocate.
40 Comments so far
Show AllRestoring Honor as in lynching an African American for insulting a white woman.
This thinly veiled reference is acceptable in todays USA's hyper-regressive society.
My pet peeve.
I wish people would stop using the word "virtue" as if it is a good thing. Virtue is all about being a man among men. It is about male domination. The source of the word is the same as "vir"ility. It is also why "vir"ginity is promoted as morally superior (so that men can use women to secure their own personal dynasty without worrying that any other man has violated their ownership of any female property).
Ultimately, virtue can mean anything done by men.
Virtue puts a higher value on those who are said to "possess" it. It is a lie.
Please try to substitute the word "integrity". This is where our thoughts and beliefs are united with our actions. It is about integrating ourselves and others in the name of justice.
"Ultimately, virtue can mean anything done by men."
So, integrity can be a virtue?
Thank you for the lesson. Consider myself corrected.
I have long suspected that the American right-wing loathes the legacy of civil-rights. But while they loathe the ideals of the civil rights movement, they also know they have to appropriate it to their own ends. This isn't hard given MLK's Christianity. It is easy to render a patriotic/conservative reading of the "I Have a Dream Speech", though such a reading would be as shallow as it would be fraught with contradiction. It's much harder to appropriate King's struggle for social justice, and his late-life focus on economic justice, or his forceful (though, perhaps, late) public condemnation of the Vietnam war.
I saw Beck say that the human race is incapable of moral progress. According to him there will always be masters and slaves. In my mind this is the very opposite of America's greatest moments abolition and civil rights, which said that human beings did not need to be bound by the chains and prejudices that had previously held them back.
There are many on the right, some who probably don't really consider themselves as right-wingers who justify every evil by referring to human nature. Even right-wing academics and scientists say we are hard-wired for war, racism, etc. I think this says more about them than it does about human nature. And it shows their lack of desire to stop racism and other forms of hatred and hegemony.
I personally think that humans are neither good nor bad. Human nature has the seeds of good or evil. There are seeds of evil within us and they grow when exposed to poisons of the mind such as racism, greed, etc. But there are seeds of good within us too, and to deny that is to do a great disservice to ourselves and our fellow human beings. I would venture to say that denying the possibility of moral improvement puts the value of our existence in question. If Glen Beck is right, why should we continue to live? Better for each other and the earth if we just stopped this whole madness of living.
SPO8: An excellent post !11
Beck is first a Neo-Nazi, and secondly a racist. He uses direct opposite language to conceal what his true motives are - and he has used this tactics for years - and it is so obvious - I do not understand why more people don't understand his tactics. When he decries Hitler and Nazism - he is deflecting blame that should be going to him. It is their strategy - always play the victim while you are gutting and cutting the throat of your opponent.
If you've never done so read/listen to the speech MLK delivered April 4, 1967. It has direct relevance to today's nightmare and was a major reason he was targeted for murder by the US government.
Here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
The Riverside speech is in the top 3 or 4 great speeches that King ever made. Thanks to Democracy Now it is not forgotten. It is the kind of speech that I used to hope Obama would deliver. But Jeremiah Wright, the guy Obama tossed under the bus, came closer than our hope and change prez ever will.
Definitely!
An even more effective narrative to attack, then Beck and MLK, would be the one that equates Obama with MLK; with Obama's being in the White House depicting the fulfillment of King's "Dream" -- comparing Obama and King's words around the Nobel "Peace" Prize, along with the Riverside speech are good starters.
...we are all connected.
Glenn Beck lectures us on MLK? What's next, Castro writing a book on Capitalism?
Article well done. Thanks.
Thanks everyone for your comments. Glad Shawn Berry and Stephen Riley like my piece. As for King’s speech against the Vietnam War delivered at Riverside Church, it is a very powerful speech. I also recommend King’s last book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” thanks “birdbrain alley” for the breakdown of the word virtue, didn’t know the origin of the word and its link to virile. Finally, it is always good to see that Glenn Ford is looking over my work and thanks for making the first comment.
Beck, Palin et al are murdering MLK for a second time.
MLK always said only the antidote of love and non-violence can stop the miasma of hate. As hateful and politically ignorant as Beck, Palin, Robertson and the rest of the nut jobs and wacko christian- fascists are; if Martin Luther King Jr. were here today he would not hate these people. Mahatma Gandhi said the same thing and he and even forgave his assassin. I am not a pacifist and sometimes it seems wars are necessary. Gandhi said non-violence is not cowardice ( what he called Satygraha ) and if you are not willing to give your life for it just like the brave soldiers that die in battle, then you are not worthy of his movement. As commendable as it is, not many can do that, but it seems to be the only way there will ever be peace in the world. " Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents, never revenges itself". Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
I agree.
I know that MLK and Gandhi wouldn't hate people like Beck.
Unfortunately, I've come to believe that's probably the problem. Hate mostly wins.
"Hate mostly wins"
While it may seem that way, I firmly believe that ultimately, love wins out.
"Love is patient..."
very true, Paul Revere, very true.
Damned right!
What you want is a revolutionary - welcome aboard, comrade!
To digress a bit, I'll be interested when the spectre of 'socialism' really *does* raise its head in the US - I imagine there'll be so much manure dropped by the Glenn Becks that the US will be able to feed the globe for generations!
Glenn Beck perpetuates the myth of Dr King as he bastardizes his original message. MLK grabbed white middle America by the scruff of its neck and shoved its face in the heaping pile of racism/injustice/inequality and said "see what you have done." He did it in a way that made it impossible to ignore because he framed it in the language of peace, love, and brotherhood. He challenged conventional doctrine and thinking calling for radical change like an end to militarism and away from the evils of capitalism. He was hated by the right wing and lost favor with "middle America" when he moved away from black/white injustice to injustice of all poor and disaffected people. He was a threat to the power structure when they realized he was going to break their divide and conquer strategy when he proposed a poor persons march on Washington.
Today, all we here about MLK was how he brought everyone together and how he was loved by all. His legacy has been corrupted and is used in ways MLK never would have approved of like corporate America using his image to peddle products like Coke. Anything remotely controversial has been expunged from the narrative to make sure the masses don't learn the true nature of Dr King and his vision for the future.
If alive today, Dr King would be marginalized by our corporate media and vilified by the power structure King worked so hard to overthrow.
MLK was not radical and was demonized by some on the Far Left for not being radical enough. Calling for peace, love, and brotherhood isn't radical. A radical would be someone like Glenn Beck.
You say radical like it's a bad thing. Howard Zinn was proud to be a radical. We need more radicals who will break free of the corporate doctrinal thinking that has been drilled into our brains from birth. Glenn Beck is no radical. he is a guardian of the corporate power structure that rules today.
The reason MLK's real message is ignored today is because it would be a radical break from what is currently happening. More radical now than when King was alive.
Absolutely. Sadly radical has come to mean fringe or extreme. Radical also means having to do with the root or the origin.
Who wouldn't want to be a radical in the second sense of the word? When investigating social and political realities, it seems logical to look for the origins. Why aren't we critical enough to look for the origins, probably because too much probing might reveal that we are the beneficiaries of an unjust and unjustifiable social order.
Marxism is not necessarily the only or best form of radical thought, but it is radical because it looks to economic relations as the root of political and social phenomena.
My feeling is that not too many folks in the US left are radical. We critique BP, the wars in the mid east. We feel betrayed by Obama. We feel defeated and angry. We feel rage at Glen Beck and the tea partiers. We sense a vague upsurge of new-racism and a more concrete upsurge of anti-immigrant racism/nativism. We see violence in our cities, we see underfunded, over-tested schools. We see joblessness and despair. But what is the ORIGIN of it? Bush? Obama? the Republicans? The Dems? Wall-Street? BP? Yes. But if anything is going to change you've got to go deeper, folks. You're not going to change wall street or the politicians until something deeper changes.
As far as the Beckian tea-party right goes, you have what appeals to some as a seemingly radical critique of government, but no critique of the corporate interests which that government mainly serves. I truly think the position is so inconsistent, that many of them realize it. The tea party's mantra is the seeminly formal "less government". Pretty harmless, I'd say. But the content here is much more important to the tea party activists than the form. In other words, we can look like we are trying to preserve a constitutional republic, when in reality we are trying to create a new American Fascism. We are trying to unite misdirected popular rage and the interests of the ruling class to create a more hierarchical and less free society. And to do this you've got to mitigate the influence of any egalitarian or democratic doctrine that still has any strength, as in the case of civil rights.
If it were not for radicals we would not have electricty! I think?
Oh D.M. I am Glenn two N's Ford the dead movie actor not Glen Ford the Black Radical.
Well well, if it isn't the great Richard Mynick who insults practical thinkers. Need I remind you of how Ted Markow nailed you on your wet definition of "Far Left" ?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/03-1
I know what your purist fantasy world is about. You want everything your way or the highway just like the Repugs. It don't work that way in the US. See, you goto push your Congress to the left and work with your communities. You can't keep waiting for fairies to deliver. You just jealous that practical thinking trumps purist thinking.
If you think I don't know MLK very well, then here, read what I wrote under that article
See timestamp - Shawn Berry. August 3rd, 2010 4:05 pm
I dunno Rich. You're a better Glenn Beck clone than me. Lay off your purist arrogance and grow up. It's myopic and dangerous.
Poor Shawn. All you can do is chug beer from the safety of your gated community. And you never know what the hell you're talking about either!
You throw that world "purist" around like it's a bad thing. At least we have values and ideals. And please don't waste our time by calling yourself practical. You're not fucking practical. You don't do anyting remotely community related and you sit around waiting for the government to take action and make the big decisions.
All you'll ever do is cheerlead the Democrats. While sitting at home watching TV, writing unproductive letters, and voting for Democrats. You're such a clueless, ignorant, amoral conservative that you could care less what they do or if they stand for anything.
But that's okay Shawn. You have your beer, your SUV, your cable television and your blind faith in the Democratic Party. Your remain comfortably numb towards and blissfully ignorant of the big picture.
Hey dude. Instead of being a purist bedwetter, why not you put your foot where your mouth is at and doing something about it. You don't know shit about the word practical so you wouldn't know how to spot one. You don't know me very well. Hey, you joined the army but nobody said you had to. Life's kool for me. Not my problem you a bedwetting loser. You want third party? Then change laws and the money. Yeah, you're too lazy for that kind of thing. Here, go buy yourself another lattee. Chubby poochy.
Well said
Your ignorance precedes you, and follows you. You really ought to practice the art of listening. Go to your local community college and take an African American History class, read a few books on King's life, read one of his speeches for God's sake.
A quote from King: "It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."
And just know that few would begrudge you your ignorance if you weren't so darned proud of it.
Yeah yeah, you want me to be a sorry ass radical like you. It's common sense that MLK was a practical thinker, not a purist bedwetter. How dishonorable of you to spin MLK's quotes just like Glenn Beck.
Beck and the likes are both ignorant and (in some cases) well-educated stupid people. Ignorance and fear are an easy sell to an uninformed public. Dispelling ignorance helps diminish fear, helps diminish hateful and unhealthy action. It starts with each individual being taught "health", then moves up and out; it will never come from the system. I once read, "If the system is the answer it must be a stupid question". Dr. King, as I view his work and ideals, was about "afflicting the comfortable".
As revolting and subhuman both as Palin and Beck are, they're not in charge. The person who's in fact dishonoring MLK's legacy and doing far more damage to blacks, peace, social justice and brotherhood is Obama.
MLK would despise Obama and his Uncle Tom ways. He would abhor Obama's capitulation to the white establishment, banks, corporations, his war escalations, his lies and covering up for old war criminals Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, etc.
As for MKL being a radical, he wasn't. I see him more in the mold of Mahatma Gandhi. People like Saint-Just and Robespierre were radicals. They achieved real, lasting change in France, which is something MKL and Gandhi never did in their respective nations (India was "freed" from Britain but became one more 3rd world satellite of the United States; Civil Rights was signed into law, apparently a great achievement like Abolition of Slavery, but both were designed to mantain whites even more firmly in power in the US).
Freedom isn't free
That's right. Freedom will be paid for in the blood of the capitalists.
We've got nothing to lose but our chains.