I find myself in an odd position.
Next Friday, I think I’m going to challenge a lot of people’s beliefs about a cultural icon. I’ve decided that I really have to tell them the truth. Martin Luther King was a plagarist.
Many people in the United States get tomorrow off, because Reagan signed a bill into law declaring a holiday in memory of Martin Luther King. He was an incredibly skillful rhetorician, and as the negative connotation of the word implies, there is a distinctly untruthful side to his life. He had many affairs. He plagiarized much of his work toward his doctoral dissertation, and the case could be made that he’s one of the worlds most successful liars. But should this tarnish the luster of a man that galvanized a nation to stand up for fundamental human rights?
Perhaps it shouldn’t, but it does. Like Bill Clinton’s skillful evasions, the indiscretions will survive the good that his tenure as president produced. I must admit that the commodification of King troubles me more than his use of stolen words. Why is it impossible to gain access to his sermons without paying for them? Should words of peace and freedom be just another product on the marketplace? The behavior of his family “protecting the King legacy” is shameful.
But all that aside, his words have a power that should be taught. As borne out by the researchers at the King Papers Project, there is also a consistency to them, regardless of their source. There is much to learn from Dr. King. I do feel that he deserves his holiday, for his rhetorical power alone. I will use his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech to teach the structures of logical argument, the power of parallelism, and the overwhelming strength of belief.
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.
“And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.”
I still believe that we shall overcome.
This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.
Martin Luther King
Slouching towards Bethlehem? I suppose so. The lesson of rhetoric is that truth can only be measured relatively, and I can forgive his cheating at school. But that doesn’t make it right. But discounting his legacy of peace and freedom gains nothing. It makes us lose a precious moment in history, a moment that should be commemorated.
