Happy Martin Luther King Day

Another great man that was shot for his attempts for the redistribution of wealth in America.

You most likely aren't aware of this because Kings later works, or rather the last years of his life for the most part are ignored by the general public. What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (63), reciting the dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (63), marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (65), and finally lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (68). What the fuck happened between 65 and 68 you might ask? The civil rights acts were passed in 64 and 65. King began challenging the nation's fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without "human right" - including economic rights. For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, anti-discrimination laws were hallow.

Nothing that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between the rich and the poor, and called for "radical changes in the structure of our society" to redistribute wealth and power.

By 67 King was also one of the most prominent opponents to the war in Vietnam. He was also highly critical of America's foreign policy, and called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

I could go on, but I have to get to class. So sorry Mr King, the gap between the rich and the poor is even bigger then it was in your day, foriegn policy is still fucked, and people are just as fucking racisit. Only 1 black man in the Senate, and if you saw black neigbourhoods today... I wonder if even you would give up hope.

from Colorado, where my sister lives.