[risk]

Sounds pretty accurate to me... ``He would be decried, by powerful figures inside and outside government, as at worst a domestic terrorist, at best a publicity-seeking menace whose criticisms of America gave comfort to our unseen enemies.''

Not fair. I would hardly describe Dr. King as a pure capitalist, but his most important message to America was a demand that it live up to the spirit of its own founding documents.

Martin Luther King was therefore a patriot. His name has been taken in vain in more ways than I can count, but that's not entirely his own fault. Who can stop a Jesse Jackson or a Malcolm X?

But at a time when drinking fountains were separate, how could we offer a morally superior position to the world in the face of communism? The time had come for America to truly become the land of the free:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
-- "I have a dream" speech.

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream."

[U S Army EOD]

What people don't really realize about segregation at that time was, if I owned a resturant and you were black and I allowed you to sit at a whites only counter to be served, I could have been fined or put in jail for breaking the law. Because of those laws, I did not have freedom of choice on who I served. It was just the opposite of being required to serve someone if I didn't want to because I didn't like their race which doesn't give you freedom of choice either.

Your actions toward a person was dictated by the law, not how you personally felt about things.

[rdb3]

It doesn't have to be fair, risk.

For these folks, America was better when people like me had to live as a second class citizen.