I was very happy that Professor Hass gave us this reading instead of the Letter From Birmingham Jail as she said in lecture, because I thought that this reading spoke very well to King’s commitment to more than just civil rights. I have always thought that King’s struggle to end poverty was an important piece of his push for civil rights, and in some ways more problematic than working for racial equality.
He speaks of the war as not just the enemy of our nation’s poor, not just as a manipulator of their communities and families, but also of the conflict in Vietnam as a destroyer or hope all over the world. His stance, in calling for profound policy and life changes for America in order to save the soul of the nation, is bold and unwavering. He speaks from his heart as a brother to those all around the globe, as a world citizen, calling upon our nation to do no less than lead a revolution against oppression.
Though these themes are ones we are all familiar with, I think the anti-poverty stance is asking so much of people, not just to change their mindset towards others, but also to change their actions, to change their view of the world completely. It may be an idealistic and even unrealistic goal in the long run, but it makes it seem like ending the war in the Vietnam is an even more necessary first step. Overall, I appreciated the reading and the discussion we had about it.
I agree that MLK spoke of unrealistic goals in his speech that night, in terms of unifying the world with love as the common denominator. This makes me think about how Dr. King's messages about equal rights for Blacks sounded before significant progress had been made. He was such a powerful orator because of the way he was able to call on each person to look within his/her heart and act accordingly, and I think this speech definitely illustrated that technique.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh that the goals MLK put forth in his speech may have/still seem to be unattainable. But as the point was made, there are many things in our nation's history that have seemed unattainable, a black president for example. I think that if we all witness what great steps we have made in our history we will see that there are many more steps to be made. We can indeed make these steps, but not without going through the same struggles previous generations did.
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