Bernie2016. MLK on Income Inequality and Redistribution of Wealth

[Catherina]

In a few weeks some of us are coming to Washington to see if the will is still alive or if it is alive in this nation. We are coming to Washington in a Poor People’s Campaign. Yes, we are going to bring the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We are going to bring those who have known long years of hurt and neglect. We are going to bring those who have come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. We are going to bring children and adults and old people, people who have never seen a doctor or a dentist in their lives.

We are not coming to engage in any histrionic gesture. We are not coming to tear up Washington. We are coming to demand that the government address itself to the problem of poverty. We read one day, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." But if a man doesn’t have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.

It didn't cost the nation one penny to integrate lunch counters. It didn't cost the nation one penny to guarantee the right to vote. But now we are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.

it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages

...

Now you are doing something else here. You are highlighting the economic issue. You are going beyond purely civil rights to questions of human rights. That is a distinction.

...

Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know now that it isn't enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee? What does it profit a man to be able to eat at the swankiest integrated restaurant when he doesn't earn enough money to take his wife out to dine? What does it profit one to have access to the hotels of our city and the motels of our highway when we don't earn enough money to take our family on a vacation? What does it profit one to be able to attend an integrated school when he doesn't earn enough money to buy his children school clothes?

And so we assemble here tonight, and you have assembled for more than thirty days now to say, "We are tired. We are tired of being at the bottom. We are tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. We are tired of our children having to attend overcrowded, inferior, quality-less schools. We are tired of having to live in dilapidated substandard housing conditions where we don't have wall-to-wall carpets but so often we end up with wall-to-wall rats and roaches. We are tired of smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society. We are tired of walking the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate to get the basic necessities of life. We are tired of our men being emasculated so that our wives and our daughters have to go out and work in the white lady's kitchen, leaving us unable to be with our children and give them the time and the attention that they need. We are tired."

And so in Memphis we have begun. We are saying, "Now is the time." Get the word across to everybody in power in this time in this town that now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to make an adequate income a reality for all of God's children. Now is the time for city hall to take a position for that which is just and honest. Now is the time for justice to roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Now is the time.

http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/28568-martin-luther-king-jr-all-labor-has-dignity

"It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here! - MLK

[WillyT]

1. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Catherina.

[Luminous Animal]

3. KandR

[sheshe2]

4. The title of the article at truth out was...

Martin Luther King, Jr.: All Labor Has Dignity

The article makes no mention of Bernie. The article is about MLK.

[Uncle Joe]

5. That's two separate sentences.

Bernie2016. MLK on Income Inequality and Redistribution of Wealth

Bernie in 2016 and for that matter long before is speaking the same language as MLK did in the article.

[sheshe2]

11. Thanks for explaining what Catherina meant.

Yet I find it misleading.

Also with all due respect MLK is for far more than income inequality.

Here.

They made black people experience the worst of the worst, collectively, that white people could dish out, and discover that it wasn't that bad. They taught black people how to take a beating—from the southern cops, from police dogs, from fire department hoses. They actually coached young people how to crouch, cover their heads with their arms and take the beating. They taught people how to go to jail, which terrified most decent people.

And you know what? The worst of the worst, wasn't that bad.

Once people had been beaten, had dogs sicced on them, had fire hoses sprayed on them, and been thrown in jail, you know what happened?

These magnificent young black people began singing freedom songs in jail.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/29/1011562/-Most-of-you-have-no-idea-what-Martin-Luther-King-actually-did#

Thanks for your time in reading this through, black people on this board have told me this is important to them.

It should be important to all of us.

[Uncle Joe]

15. No one ever said nor implied that MLK wasn't for more than just being about economic injustice but

he was for that and you can't deny it.

Nothing else that Bernie has said or done contradicts MLK's other messages of defiance, in fact Bernie words and actions support that as well.

Bernie doesn't hold back from taking on the billionaire class or the corporate media, he stated that this can't be done alone as well.

A movement needs to be created to stand up to these ultra-powerful and corruptive institutions, this is also in line with your link of how MLK inspired African Americans to stand up against racial injustice and never be bowed.

[sheshe2]

17. I will respectfully answer you.

I know I am throwing the dice here for a hide. Any negative of Bernie gets one. That has become a reality here. I find that very sad on what once was a Democratic board.

Bernies focus is on the economic injustice, it has always been that. He segues to social justice then snaps back to economics.

No. It is not in line with my link.

A movement needs to be created to stand up to these ultra-powerful and corruptive institutions, this is also in line with your link of how MLK inspired African Americans to stand up against racial injustice and never be bowed.

I hate corporations. I work for one. That is not what BLM is about.

They want to live. They want to live. Dear God, they want to live.

My father told me with a sort of cold fury, "Dr. King ended the terror of living in the south."

Please let this sink in and and take my word and the word of my late father on this. If you are a white person who has always lived in the U.S. and never under a brutal dictatorship, you probably don't know what my father was talking about.

But this is what the great Dr. Martin Luther King accomplished. Not that he marched, nor that he gave speeches.

He ended the terror of living as a black person, especially in the south.

That is their justice.

As a woman and a minority I wish he would speak for me as well. He has not.

[Garrett78]

18. Question

Racial justice is the #1 issue for me personally. I'm a passionate anti-racist. And I'm not wild about any of the Democratic candidates for president. I'm more likely to vote for Jill Stein. I point that out because I'm not coming at this from a Sanders vs. Clinton perspective.

One of the things that bugs me most about Clinton is that she employed the Southern Strategy against Obama in '08 by insinuating that he wasn't electable on account of not being able to get enough support from white folks. And - rhetoric aside - I don't see anything in Clinton's history that suggests she has done much to combat institutional racism. Do those things bother you?

[sheshe2]

20. I have always been an Obama supporter.

Always.

Times change, people evolve. The message will be the same, they are for all the people.

[Uncle Joe]

19. If you don't wish to view the entire segment, scroll to the 2:14 mark

Note the keywords in Obama's speech, "foreign corporations" and "foreign interests."

and from your post

My father told me with a sort of cold fury, "Dr. King ended the terror of living in the south."

Please let this sink in and and take my word and the word of my late father on this. If you are a white person who has always lived in the U.S. and never under a brutal dictatorship, you probably don't know what my father was talking about.

But this is what the great Dr. Martin Luther King accomplished. Not that he marched, nor that he gave speeches.

He ended the terror of living as a black person, especially in the south.

What do you believe the end result would be of "foreign corporations" and "foreign interests" controlling American elections?

I totally understand your point about Black Lives Matters goals and motivations, that hasn't escaped me and I don't believe that it has escaped Bernie either.

[AOR]

6. The point is this...

while Sanders is not...and MLK was not... an actual leftist (anti-capitalist), both understand and understood the role that class plays in the exploitation of labor and workers of all stripes and that Social/Economic Justice are inseparable in the fight for anything resembling justice for ALL.

[OKNancy]

7. Pope Francis and MLK all rolled into one...

And some people make fun of the BOG...

[Armstead]

8. No. Not them. But raising similar points and similar goals of addressing root causes of problems

Nuthin' wrong with that.

We used to get inspired by such things. Not any more I guess,

[George II]

10. Throw in a dash of P. T. Barnum

[sheshe2]

12. +1000

[Zorra]

9. If MLK had ever been elected POTUS, he would have been, and still would be,

recognized as the greatest POTUS in US history.

He walked the walk he talked, and he got things done in the face of massive opposition and obstruction.

[sheshe2]

16. Obama was our first AA President.

If MLK had ever been elected POTUS, he would have been, and still would be, recognized as the greatest POTUS in US history. He walked the walk he talked, and he got things done in the face of massive opposition and obstruction.

How do you feel about him? He did what you said about MLK and sadly many here hate that man.

[Hydra]

13. I've always thought that we were transitioning from racism and sexism to simple classism

It seems to sit better in people's minds that the poor deserve to suffer, and they are not-people.

And who raises a cry to stop said abuse?

[Thinkingabout]

14. Huumm, stretching far on this one, MLK worked his struggle for years, was a leader, knew the art of

Protest, marched many times and gave his life for the cause. John Lewis knew the struggles and marched beside MLK many times.