Rev. Martin Luther King - an appreciation

By James R. Smith

Rev. Martin Luther King was a visionary who is still ahead of us. Many of the ideas he advanced nearly 40 years ago are as relevant and as needed today as they were then.

The King of us all

By James R Smith

We're still celebrating a happy 35th anniversary of the Beachhead, but a sadder 35th anniversary will be upon us soon. It was 35 years ago this April 4, that perhaps the foremost visionary in U.S. history, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis.

King, whose Jan. 15 birthday is celebrated as a national holiday on Jan. 19 this year, was a visionary and a dreamer who saw far beyond his day and ours. It may be generations before most people catch up with his vision of equality and love between people of all races.

Nowhere is King-as-visionary more explicit than in his last book, Where Do We Go From Here? published the year he was killed. In it, King speculates on the host of positive psychological changes in people that could result from their having economic security. To the 4,000 people in Venice living under the poverty level and the hundreds of homeless, it might seem like heaven on earth to have economic security. To end poverty and related problems and provide economic security, King latches on to an exceedingly simple solution - a guaranteed income.

With a guaranteed income, King says "the dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning his life are in his own hands." One might add that people would never have to sink so low for economic reasons as to become scabs at Ralphs, taking jobs of others who have been locked out for standing up for their rights.

King points out that the wealthy have been enjoying a guaranteed income for years because of their investments. Social security recipients also receive a guaranteed income, although it is much too low for most to enjoy. To prevent a guaranteed income from locking people into poverty, King says it must be indexed to the median income of society and must increase as social wealth increases. He quotes the economist John Kenneth Galbraith who estimates that it would cost $20 billion a year, "not much more than we will spend the next fiscal year to rescue freedom and democracy and religious liberty as these are defined by `experts' in Vietnam." Today it might cost $87 billion, or less, for a guaranteed income and end to poverty.

King was also a realist. He knew that whites had held the ideology of racism for hundreds of years. The "master race" belief was too strong to be eliminated in a generation. King knew that promises to African- Americans (like those to Native Americans) were usually broken. He observed that the Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, was not coupled with any distribution of land to help Blacks survive. The "40 acres and a mule" promise was never realized. Even today, 141 years down the road, we who have reaped the wealth of hundreds of years of slave owning have never made amends.

King noted that the "illegal immigrants" from England preferred to wipe out the indigenousness population, rather than intermarry with them as did the Spanish and Portuguese. As King says, "The common phase, `The only good Indian is a dead Indian,' was virtually elevated to national policy." Perhaps it was this profound understanding of the (white) American character that made King so strongly advocate coalition politics. He knew it was very dangerous for African-Americans to directly confront such a dominate culture without allies.

What would Martin Luther King say and do if he were alive today. He would be 74 years old this January 15. Younger than Nelson Mandela!

In recent years, much speculation has revolved around what would be his attitude to the bombing of Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq and the Patriot Act. Naturally, he would be opposed, as he was to the Vietnam war.

He would surely take note of the lack of forward progress toward equality in recent years. Cities are still segregated, good jobs are hard to find, and the official Black adult unemployment rate stands at 11.5 percent, twice the national average. Black teenage unemployment is an astronomical 37 percent.

Segregated, with inner cities have the poorest schools, the least amenities, second-rate supermarkets, the most unfriendly police, etc. Here in Venice, Oakwood is still "across the tracks," even though they have been removed. Poverty, crime, police brutality, lack of city services are all concentrated in Oakwood. Why in the "Peoples Republic of Venice" do such conditions still exist. Maybe it's progress that racist descriptions of Oakwood have stopped being used - at least in public - by whites in Venice. Granted some of the problems are economic (isn't everything), such as the high cost of property and rents.

Could racism be a factor? Could racism explain the high fences and attack dogs that point out where whites have moved into Oakwood? What about the rest of Venice? On a walk down most streets you'll pass 10- foot high fences (where is the city's code enforcement now that we need it?). Some newer houses are built like forts. It would take a decent size army to storm the defenses of one of my neighbors, whom I've never seen, much less met.

If Martin Luther King were alive today, he might emphasize the importance of building community. In Venice, that not only means getting to know your neighbors. It means getting to know Black Venetians, Latino Venetians, homeless Venetians, white homeowner Venetians, the whole lot. Building community means coming out from behind those barricades and helping Black teens find jobs, getting a homeless mother to a shelter, or a shower.

We can't really say what Martin Luther King would say. He's still too advanced for us. But we can rest assured that if he was alive today, he would be involved. He would be speaking out about injustice, and he would be appealing to the best in each of us.

Happy Birthday Rev. King!