Today we celebrate the life and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King... now viewed -- in the words of biographer Harvard Sitkoff -- as "a moderate, respectable ally of Presidents and a facile spokesperson for the American Dream." Indeed, virtually every modern presidential candidate invokes the image of Dr. King as as model of peaceful, incremental change.

This view is wrong and dangerous. 40 years ago, Dr. King's agenda was radical, not moderate. He preached the need for cataclysmic change. He was hated by many in the population, especially by the FBI and state and local governments all across the South. He was attacked, discredited, sent to jail and, finally, murdered.

And he was right. At the time, America was a segregated society and there was not adequate access to shelter, health care, education or economic opportunity for a significant portion of our citizens. Because of his work, we are better today, but are we where we need to be? Are we less racist or is our racism better hidden? Are we less racist, or have our prejudices devolved into class, not racial, hatred? Are the basic needs of all our citizens being met?

As important, have we so sanitzed the image of Dr. King that we have forgotten what it takes to change this society? Dr. King was angry and justifiably so. We have a lot to be angry about today (the bumper sticker I see often in my town says, "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention.") Expressing our anger, however, generally meets with either apathy or a sense that anger is an inappropriate reaction -- especially when directed at the current administration. Interestingly, as of yesterday, there is one year left for the Bush administration. I think it's time for us to recognize the wreckage of the past seven years and begin to articulate the kind of leadership we demand in the future.

Mr. Bush and his associates have created a world in which we have both a growing class of uber-rich and a failing economy that is crushing the middle class with runaway debt, falling housing values and inconsistent and underfunded public services: a collapsing infrastructure, unreliable policing, a chaotic public education system and diminished recreation services. We now torture, fire judges when we can't influence them, destroy or withhold evidence of governmental wrong-doing, invite polluters to secret meetings to shape environmental policy, reveal the identities of intelligence operatives to punish political opponents, invade foreign countries on false pretenses and willingly suffer the indignity of -- last week -- having to beg the Saudis to lower the price of oil. I'm not naive enough to beleive Mr. Bush is the only President to have shaped or mis-used intelligence to further his own agenda (see my ealier post on the Bush-LBJ Doctrine...) and I certainly understand that other administrations have withheld evidence, lied and made terrible decisions. I'm convinced, however, that we have never before been so brazen in our flouting of the Constitution. Am I too angry when I conclude that this will eventually be viewed as the either one of the most corrupt or one of the most incompetent adminstrations in history... or both?

I think not. I think it's time we all speak truth to power, even when it's inconvenient or uncomfortable. I think it's time we tell our neigbors how we feel and encourage them to do the same. I think we need to explore our own motivations in order to begin to establish a civil, but frank, public dialogue about our expecations of ourselves, of our leadership and of our country. I think it's time that we recognize that. despite the prosperity many of us are experiencing, millions of people across the globe are poor, undernourished, homeless, sick, uneducated and without hope. More important, it's time that we recognized that their plight is our problem. And solving these problems will not come from moderate, gradual, incremental change.

Dr. King was a radical. And he was right. Today, we celebrate his spirit. Do we have his courage?