After reading the article "Martin Luther King's Unfinished Business", I personally think the article is just telling the reader what did Martin Luther King accomplished and achieved in the years he is alive. He is such a man who did so many things for his people and he was assassinated in Memphis where he is supporting a strike of low-paid municipal workers. As what the article described, he is "much, much more than that and by the end of his life was advocating change of a revolutionary character, challenging the power of American capitalism." Basically, Martin Luther King has sacrifice his life to achieve his dreams and has never stop or give up on making a change for his people to have a better life. He is such a plastic postage stamp saint that makes him to be an elitist person in most Americans' eyes and it will not be forgot. I personally think Martin Luther King is a important character in the United States, because I cannot imagine how it will be right now if he did not fight for equality. Even though I do not know enough to judge what he has done is consider good or bad, right or wrong, to the country, I do agree with him saying "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I personally believes that everybody is born to be equal in this world that people should be treated the same regardless of what race you are. But in the other hand, I don't think equality exist in the society. For example, if there is a boy who is born in a rich family and a boy is born in a poor family, it is complicated to determine whether that is equal or not. Because once you are born, a lot of things are already being set up, you cannot choose who is going to be your family member or who is your parents. So how should we define equal or fair? I think in one point that everybody is equal because as human, everybody should be treated the same, that is the fundamental privilege that people should have. Also at the same time, you cannot choose your race, nationality...etc. So if you are born to have a dark skin even though you don't want to, it is equal because the person with light skin did not get to choose who they want to be either. This could also see as unfair or unequal, of course, the rich is better in the society because they would have more power over the others. In this case, regardless of wealth or social status, I agree with Martin Luther King that everybody are created equal, because people should not treat each other differently based on their skin color or race as human beings. This makes me think of equality plays a big role in our life because that indicates human values - dignity.
When Martin Luther King condemn the country's leaders for breaking the promises in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, he urged unity and announced "Many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realise that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realise that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone." Martin Luther King believes that everybody is actually connected to each other and nobody can work things out alone. Everybody should be together as a group in order to be united. I do agree with Martin Luther King that each person's destiny is tied up to the other and everybody is affecting each other throughout our life time. But I also wanted to point out that while Martin Luther King is fighting against racism, himself is racist, too. Because by reading his quote, it seems like he is fighting the rights specifically for his people. "Instead of hououring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad cheque, a cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'. " I personally think when a person goes to the extreme, is never be able to determine whether he/she is right or wrong because there is always two sides on things. While he is fight the rights for the black people, it is the same for the whites too. Therefore, if we are all tied up together, what is the point of fighting each other? Aren't we all losers that has been defeated by death? This brought up a question in my mind, why do people fight?
From 1965, Martin Luther King started to attack the America's war in Vietnam and he told his staff that "there must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism." Throughout Martin Luther King's life, I have been noticing that Martin Luther King is mostly struggling and fighting for fairness among each other, such as the way people being treated regardless of people's race and wealth in the society. He has always been seeking for the equality, justice for humans, specifically for poor people, the lower class. This has brought my attention to the fact that it is impossible to determine fair and equal. It also makes me think that what is the definition of equal for Martin Luther King. Moreover, Martin Luther King's actions reminds me of Obama that he tries to make a difference in people's life and he is planning to end the Iraq war to save more money for the people who really needed. Lowering the health care...etc. All these things have to do with equality between people and constantly relating to fairness, justice. At some point, I felt like Obama has the possibility of turning into a plastic postage stamp saint that everybody admires like their idol that they will never be able to reach his elitist, successful achievements.
According to "Where Do We Go From Here", it said, "in order to answer the question, 'where do we go from here?' which is our theme, we must first recognize where we are now." I think it is so true that in order to make a difference, people should know where are they now. In the article, it explains the situation of unfairness, "Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half of those whites. There are twice as many unemployed...This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values." Martin Luther King has struggle for his people about dignity, worth, and values in the society. This shows a lot about human life that how much this means to people, that we cannot live without such dignity. We must stand strong and create a system that is unassailable to protect these values. Based on this quote, it says a lot about human, and what is the good and meaningful life. Peace, fairness, and love. For so many years, Martin Luther King has fight for his definition of fair, equal for a lot of people that he made a CHANGE in people's life. "And I say to you today, that if our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth." While reading the article, it constantly reminds me of Obama that the things that he wants to change. It also connects to our life that we make decisions based on what values more, what is more important. By doing all these things, it gratifies a lot of people's dreams in their life. Therefore, it makes the people who is making these changes to a person who is more than perfect, that is so elitist that people cannot be any better.
All these accomplishments that Martin Luther King has fight for his people has made him into a person that everybody admired that his flaws will not affect his image to the others. This also sends out a marginal message telling people that if you have done enough good things for the community, sometimes mistakes and your bad things will be cover by the things you accomplished. At this point, it is hard to determine whether Martin Luther King is a good person or not, and it is not important. But he is definitely an important person for the country in history, and without him, the issue of racism might be even worst in America.
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