Reminder

"We must recognize that we can’t solve our problem now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power… this means a revolution of values and other things. We must see now that the evils of racism, economic exploitation and militarism are all tied together… you can’t really get rid of one without getting rid of the others… the whole structure of American life must be changed. America is a hypocritical nation and [we] must put [our] own house in order.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Report to SCLC Staff, May 1967.

Martin Luther King worked not only as a champion of racial justice, but also as an anti-war activist, a labor organizer, and an anti-capitalist. He was a target of the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, and had a public disapproval rating of nearly 75% when he died. He envisioned a sweeping change to the American social and political fabric. As I look around today at the brazen rise of white supremacists, the perpetual war machine, the decline of unions, and economic inequities not seen since the the days of the robber barons, I have to wonder how much progress we have made in the past fifty years, and how much backsliding we have experienced. We need the courage to stand for a fundamental change in the way do things in America, regardless of how disruptive or unsettling that may feel. We can't wait another fifty years.

“Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”

 – Dr, Martin Luther King Jr., speech to the Negro American Labor Council, 1961.