Suzanne Hopcroft '03

"The greatest purveyor of violence on the planet is my own government." -Dr. Martin Luther King.

Those who have expressed dissatisfaction concerning the inclusion of political speeches or activities in the events on Martin Luther King Day are, in fact, perfectly correct: as a community, we have done very little to make clear the connection between Dr. King's legacy and current issues such as America's impending invasion of Iraq. King, we all know, is glorified as one of the strongest icons of the civil rights movement. However, our knowledge of this man's ideals and philosophies seldom extends beyond that basic point.

When Dr. King died, many in America mourned. There was an immediate call for national recognition of this man's very real importance to our development as a nation. No longer recognized as the radical the CIA had persecuted for his extremist views on racism, materialism, and the aggressively violent foreign policy of the United States, King was quickly immortalized as one of our country's greatest martyrs. Once his identity was thus transformed, it became unthinkable that we might question the validity of King's message or his legacy. Consequentially, rather than accepting the truth of his indisputably revolutionary ideas about the American political, economic and social reality, we twisted the truth into a watered-down abridgment that left the controversy out of the dream.

Little has changed since then. Even at Deerfield, an educational institution that prides itself on its broadly enlightened worldview, our knowledge of Dr. King's beliefs is negligible at best. We conform to current societal standards of political correctness by politely observing Martin Luther King Day with a minimal amount of inconvenience to ourselves. But what can a celebration of this man's birth possibly mean, when our knowledge of his life and works is so incomplete that we fail to recognize some of the most important tenets of his philosophy?

The truth of the matter is that if we intend to honor Dr. King, we must speak to the reality of his vision of the world, acknowledging his battle against materialism and militarism as well as his fight for civil rights. And if we find that we cannot yet bring ourselves to embrace King's vision in its entirety, let us express our dissent. Certainly, that would be a more fitting demonstration of our devotion to his memory than the glorification of a lie.