Martin Luther King Jr. was considered a terrorist by the power structure in his own time, and were he alive today, he would undoubtably be considered a terrorist by the very same politicians who will today shower his legacy with superficial praise.
It is always easy to celebrate a dissident hero from decades past, long after particular struggles have been tirelessly fought and won. With the person safely no longer alive or a threat to vested interests, it becomes easy to claim solidarity with such noble principles.
What’s much harder to do is to celebrate and support contemporary dissidents and whistleblowers. People with so much heart, courage and conviction behind their beliefs they often end up dead, such as Aaron Swartz; in jail, such as Barrett Brown, Private Manning and John Kiriakou; or on the run, such as Edward Snowden. On this MLK Day I want to do what I’m confident Dr. King would have wanted. I want to ask everyone reading this to support and stand with today’s dissidents and freedom fighters, because while history is important, the battles we face today are no less significant or monumental.
I also want to acknowledge Dr. King’s tremendous legacy by reposting a piece I wrote in June 2013 below. Enjoy.
Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal”
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Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of my personal heroes. Not just because of his outsized contribution to the civil rights movement, but because of his leadership capabilities and emphasis on non-violent civil disobedience. It also goes without saying, that this wasn’t just a great orator with enlightened tactics, he was also a highly intelligent man with a strong sense of history. This is on full display in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which I highlighted in the piece: