Harsh words by Martin Luther King

I read with interest Cynthia Tucker's column on April 2. She pointed out some interesting comments made by Dr. Martin Luther King.

I read these quotes in the context of today's brouhaha with Obama's minister. So many people are up in arms about his comments about America, especially, it seems to me, his feelings about America's culpability in 9/11.

"Among the most controversial public statements King ever made was his 1967 repudiation of the Vietnam War. Aside from its incisive criticism of the war itself, it offered a biting critique of America's use of power", wrote Ms. Tucker (italics mine.)

He said: "I know I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government." The Vietnamese "watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million of them, mostly children."

Ms. Tucker also wrote "it is a reminder that he believed that genuine allegiance to his country lay in realistically appraising its weaknesses". Of course we know that King was also willing and did lay down "his life to make it better," as Tucker wrote.

Do you find these words incendiary and anti-American? King didn't only give the "I had a dream speech," he used these words and others that sounded harsh. Does that change your feeling about him? What about Obama's minister? Just wondering....

Mary Maupin Carol Stream