Martin Luther King, Jr. Supported Public Employees Right to Unionize

Memphis sanitation workers strike of 1968
Today is the national holiday honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. All across our nation, elected officials will be participating in various activities to mark the occassion. They will seek to honor King's memory. But many will be dishonoring his work by their attack on public employee unions.ll

Dr. King was in Memphis, Tennessee when he was assasinated on April 4, 1968. King was in Memphis supporting a strike by the city's sanitation workers. Many of the politicians who will be praising Dr. King today, are trying to eliminate public workers right to unionize and collectively bargain for good wages and safe working conditions. In other words, they seek to destroy the very thing King gave his life to defend.

If these officials want to truly honor the life of Dr. King, they should support public employees' right to organize rather than simply ring a bell or march in a parade.Dr. King marching with striking Memphis sanitation workers

The Perversion of Dr. King

Mark Twain noted, “The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”

I am reminded of this quote whenever I read how conservatives try to use part of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" against any attempt to realize social justice for African-Americans through the type of collective action we have available to us through federal legislation and governmental policy. Conservatives fixate on the line from King's speech.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

They try to argue that all government policy which attempts to help those in need is a violation of what King stood for.

This sort of King "proof texting" ignores that fact that King worked for economic justice as part and parcel of his work for political rights. In fact, his last act was to take part in a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis. Dr. King felt that some attempt had to be made to address the economic injustices that fell most heavily on people of color in this country.

Conservatives have not only tried to adopt King as one of their own, they have also tried to pervert King's essential message.

My President and Me

At the Martin Luther King Day Parade in OKC
A photographer for The Oklahoman newspaper took a picture of me riding in the back of a pickup with a cut-out of Pres. Barack Obama at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade in downtown Oklahoma City.

Some Thoughts on the Eve of Obama's Inauguration

Those of us who believe passionately in social justice, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 looms as the "Great Wakenin' Up Morning." For 8 years, we have the Bush administration tear down environmental protection, attack human rights, turn our beloved nation into an agressor nation, employ torture, run our economy for the benefit of the rich and powerful and commit a host of other rapes of the body politic.

Now, it seems almost too good to be true, and it probably is.

One cannot help but appreciate the symbolism of the fact that Obama is being inaugurated as president on the day after we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. We will celebrate the birth of one of the most important figures in the American Civil Rights movement with one of that movements most important accomplishments. Yet we forget that Dr. King was in his time castigated, not only by those who felt he was moving too fast to advance civil rights, but also by those who felt that he moved far too slowly. Malcolm X called King's historic "March on Washington" in 1963 the "Farce on Washington" because he felt King has bowed to pressure to tone down the militancy of the event.

Right now, Barack Obama has become something of a blank canvas upon which those on the right have painted their worst fears while those of us on the left have pinned our greatest hopes on his administration. Neither side will everything they fear nor everything they hope for come to pass.

Above all, those of us who hope that Obama will truly bring about the change he has promised must realize that he cannot change all by himself, we must continue to be the change we seek in the world. We cannot now set back to enjoy the harvest of our planting and work. We must continue to work the fields to cultivate the growth of justice.

I Told You It Was Cold!

Yours Truly at the Martin Luther King Day Parade

Another Great Grand Avenue Cartoon

Grand Avenue

I love the values this cartoon promotes.

Pictures from the OKC Martin Luther King Day Parade

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade was held in downtown Oklahoma City. The weather was cold and blustery, but there was a large contingent of Democrats in the parade.

Oklahoma Young Democrats

It was a cold day, but the Oklahoma Young Democrats were out in force.

Wallace Collins, Ivan Holmes

State Representative Walllace Collins from Norman and Ivan Holmes, Oklahoma Democratic Party chairman braved the weather.

Obama Mobile

Barach Obama supporters turned out in good numbers.

ODP banner

Walking the parade route.

Entrance to the National Memorial

We walked past the National Memorial



Near the end.



At the end we were tired, more than a little chilled, but very glad to have taken part.

From One of My Favorite Cartoon Strips

Grand Avenue by Steve Breen

Wise indeed.

Today, We Honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. King in a pulpit

One of the many things I appreciate about the fact that we honor Dr. King's memory this time of year is that we have a holiday in honor of a preacher. Having grown up in a parsonage, I am glad that we honor a representative of the ministry. Of course, we don't do this primarily because King was an ordained minister, but we should not forget this aspect of his life. His "I Have a Dream" speech is better term the "I Have a Dream" sermon. For that is what it is, a sermon to the nation. It is, in fact, an evangelical sermon, a "National Call to Repentance" because you can see all the marks of the "Come to Jesus" sermon in it. Identification of sin, the call to Repentance, the Hope of Grace, the Need for Attonement, the Opportunity for Reconciliation can all be found in the speech's stirring words.
"I Have a Dream" Text and Video

John Winthrop

King was one of many prophetic voices throughout our history who have called the nation to live up to its promise. Another favorite of mine is John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" which contains the phrase "We shall be as a city set upon a hill." Though Winthrop was a layman, his speech was organized in the manner of the Puritan sermons of his day. Winthrop, first governmor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gave his sermon to the Puritan colonists in transit over the Atlantic. In many ways, Winthrop set the tone for how we see ourselves as a nation and our place in the world.
"A Model of Christian Charity" Speech

Be a Thermostat not a Thermometer

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The church is not merely a thermometer that records the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it is the thermostat that transforms the mores of society.”--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Woe Unto You Hypocrites!

Pres. Bush at the tomb of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Matthew 23: 29-32
The words of Jesus:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!"

The words of Jesus still ring true. While prophets are alive, and King was a prophet for our time, they are reviled, ridiculed, and rejected. After their death, they are honored. Conservatives try to misuse King's statement, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." They try to use it to deny economic justice measure like affirmative action.

What they forget (or ignore) is that the day King was assassinated in Memphis, he had come to support a sanitation workers strike. King believed in economic justice, and it became the thrust of his work and ministry (along with opposition to the Vietnam War).