Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death Anniversary

Yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. As pointed out in an article I came across today, let’s remember him for more than a Civil Rights leader (of which he was a consummate one), but as a Human Rights leader.

"True compassion," King declared, "is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

He spoke out and called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." (in reference to Vietnam and our other world-wide “excursions”)

In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People's Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would descend on Washington -- engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be -- until Congress enacted a poor people's bill of rights.

He was a great man and a great leader. To remember him only for his “I Had a Dream Speech” makes him 1 dimensional and does not recall all he accomplished and the great potential that was snuffed out much too soon.