MLK speaking, invites you in. You sympathize with this person, because he doesn’t fault you for being the same color as the persons oppressing him, he doesn’t blame you for not getting involved (yet), his demands are reasonable, well-constructed, and calmly and articulately delivered without an abuse of passion or emotion- instead, he elicits the emotional reaction indirectly; you feel the unfairness by being shown where it is, rather than have it told to you. You aren’t being bludgeoned with obvious pull-at-the-heartstrings like you might find in a Sarah McLaughlin ASPCA commerical, if you forgive the inartful and inappropriate comparison.
Rather than rush to overwhelm you by pleading about the pain and injustice, simple, rational, calmly delivered points are made. And then, as you’re being drawn into the plight of people who you don’t know, in circumstances you haven’t felt, you are shown one thing after another which would be intolerable if you had to experience it. Again, without feeling blamed for it, without feeling shamed into accepting his positions.
And as he speaks, there is seriousness and authority behind what he is saying. Without indicating violence or aggression or intimidation, he makes it plainly clear that he will calmly and rationally continue his struggle on behalf of the people, and it is plain to see, the people will follow him. Blessed with all the gifts that people expect from true leaders, he wields those tools with surgical precision.
You can support him even if you were otherwise disinterested because you come away feeling like he knows exactly how far his struggle needs to go, and it won’t go any farther, and that he doesn’t hate his enemies the way his enemies hate him. He is their adversary because they have made him one, and not because he has a grudge or a personal score to settle. There is only one score that needed settling, which was systematic injustice.
And he spoke of the hope and the positive things that would happen if you followed him, and they did not feel like empty promises. You really and truly believed that if you followed him, the society that would result would be one where black persons and the persons who had formerly been oppressing them, their children would be friends, not enemies. There would be no generations of hatred or grudges or warfare. The score would be even, justice would be done. Measured justice.
And as good as it all seemed, you did not get the sense that it was too good to be true, while nearly flawless, it did not read like a skilled marketing tactic. You truly felt like if you supported MLK, you would get exactly what it said on the tin.
For all those reasons and more, he was one of, if not the, most effective and most influential civil rights advocates in all of history’s memory.
And if we’re going to honor a guy who happened to discover land other people were living on while looking for a different continent, and that’s a historical figure we cherish, I do not see why MLK deserves any less.
Truly, a bizarre target for a pitting. The second and third posts in this thread really says it in a kind of concise way I obviously can never manage.
Whatever the guy’s personal failings, he shares those failings with a hundred million other guys on the planet. What sets him apart is what he was able to achieve for millions of people, and affect positive change. Those achievements vastly overshadow his mortal trappings, and those achievements are and should be pretty much immortal.
I mean, if we’re going to pit a guy like MLK, who exactly is a role model for anyone?
If there is a hypothetical flawless and perfect human being, their achievements wouldn’t even be that impressive. Of course you managed to cure cancer, you’ve never been tempted by sexual attraction ever, and have an intense dislike for any kind of personal time.
Heroes are ordinary flawed human beings who achieve incredible things, or inspire millions of people in a positive way. And they are more inspiring than a hypothetical flawless human being, because it means that the rest of us are not barred from acting in heroic fashion, should there be an opportunity presented to us. We can be like them, when they are at their best.
That is why they are a role model- it is their humanity that makes them relateable, as much as their achievements made are important, what really matters is that they affect others to examine themselves and improve themselves.
One flawless human being acting positively would be *nothing *compared to an entire generation of flawed human beings behaving more positively than before.
It is this strengthening of the moral character of our entire society that would not happen without the strength of leaders like MLK. One man can make the rest of us better people, by setting the example, and not an unachievable example at that.
