Our Common Heritage: Where do we go from here?

Incisive inspirations provided by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. transcend the rote lip service to race or ‘diversity’ he’s typically paid. Delving into the sobering reasons that make the man well regarded by history and such a presence in the American public consciousness is a process well-begun by going to the source. All text in bold below is from King’s 1967 SCLC Presidential Address (read the whole speech here). 

“...And one day we must ask the question, ‘Why are there forty million poor people in America?’ And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society...”

In the nearly fifty years since King uttered these words aloud, how timely have his words remained? Although poverty rates may vary, “approximately 43.6 million Americans were living in poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million in 2008. (Wikipedia)” If any of King’s words can filter through to the present day as a practical strategy for the replacement of systemic exploitation with symbiosis, perhaps they are here, for our President and ourselves to heed:

“New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available. … It is the work of men who somehow find a form of work that brings a security for its own sake and a state of society where want is abolished.”

If a Democratic President can’t launch a sweeping employment program to create and maintain a renewable resource infrastructure, what good is a Democratic President anyway? King again:

“Work of this sort could be enormously increased, and we are likely to find that the problems of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished. The poor transformed into purchasers will do a great deal on their own to alter housing decay.”

What could be more timely? More than a million homes are out there, ship-shape and winterized under the watch of shady mega-banks while humans continue to struggle to make ends meet. And yet this is no socialist tirade:

“Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together.”

Speaking this truth to power is reminiscent of Dwight Eisenhower’s memorable railing against the escalation of the military-industrial complex. More to the point however, is the ultimate humanity placed in balance not just in terms of race or poverty but as the beneficiary of the “higher synthesis” of understanding for which he advocates. To extend even to the very intercourse of the literal and figurative sustenance of our shared heritage, “Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.” Near the close of King’s address, he quotes William Cullen Bryant in what in retrospect might be a reminder to us to explore more of King’s fundamental questioning of authority: “Truth crushed to earth will rise again,” he says.

There is more to Dr. King than a hopeful dream for racial conciliation. As he makes explicit above, the challenges we face are intertwined and anything less than an honest, holistic assessment is tantamount to malignant ignorance.