Why, because he helped bring down segregation? Here's a brilliant segment of his "I have a dream" speech:
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"In 1963, those words were sorely needed in this country. In any case, he wasn't asking for the destruction of our government, rather that it lived up to its promise. That promise is so prominent in the Declaration of Independence:And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. -- http://bcn.boulder.co.us/government/national/speeches/spch3.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.King was one great American because he demanded that we honor what we believed instead of merely paying it lip service. The icon of King may be used in ways with which we disagree, and King himself may have allowed that to happen. But gagging him would have been one of the least American things one could ever do in this country.
It's important not to mix King and Malcolm X up in any way. I've listened to several Malcolm X sermons, and I've got to tell you, King was a healer, while Malcolm X was a destroyer.
Conservatism in 2003 should not be about going back to the old racist days where gagging was literal, as this lynchings by state map shows over the period of 1882 and 1927:
This reminds me of a great story about firearms ownership and how important it is to our freedoms known as the Battle of Athens, Tennessee.