Emotionally hostile to the needs of the poor

A year ago, Richard RJ Eskow of the blog Crooks and Liars, listed ten quotes of Martin Luther King that describe how we should work towards the common good. He then commented how well we are meeting each of those goals.

A year has gone by and we honor King again. So, Eskow repeated the ten quotes. We have made a little progress, thanks to the uprising in Madison and the Occupy movement. But we have a long way to go.

The quotes by King are from:
* Where Do We Go From Here, a speech given in August,1967.
* Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, April 1967 speech.
* Letter From a Birmingham Jail, April 1963.
* A Testament of Hope, essay published posthumously.

1."True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

The culture of Vulture Capitalism (a phrase now in use by GOP nominees) didn't just happen. "It was made by politicians. It should be un-made by politicians. The system is the problem and it needs to change."

In 2000 the poverty rate was 11.3%. It is now over 15%. "Is that OK with you?"

2. "We must develop a federal program of public works, retraining, and jobs for all -- so that none, white or black, will have cause to feel threatened ... There is nothing except shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum and livable income for every American family."

The only bills proposed in Congress are disguised tax breaks for the rich. As for large numbers of poor whites voting for the GOP, King said,

"The unemployed, poverty-stricken white man must be made to realize that he is in the very same boat with the Negro. Together, they could exert massive pressure on the government to get jobs for all. Together they could form a grand alliance. Together, they could merge all people for the good of all."

Nobody is addressing the long-term job-loss catastrophe.

3. "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

Eskow quotes wealth inequality stats, including a drop in minimum wage, though sees some hope: "Hello, Occupy!"

4. "The profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system, encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that encourages men to be I-centered rather than thou-centered."

Eskow quotes a few bankers and hedge-fund managers lecturing us about morals and describes the work they do to keep the government regulations from working.

5. "Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals."

The International Monetary Fund has reported a strong correlation between bank lobbying and risky bank behavior.

6. "An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal."

There is a great deal of lawbreaking by banks as part of the home foreclosure mess.

7. "When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Eskow wrote:

Banking has become divorced from reality. When the financial sector can enrich itself with speculation alone, it no longer needs to fund concrete business activities. That's why statements like "Main Street and Wall Street rise and fall together" are 100 percent incorrect: Those two geographies have never been more distant from one another.

Racism? Look at disparities in infant mortality, poverty, and employment.

Militarism? Defense budget is growing, as is Homeland Security -- which is looking for new targets of surveillance.

Materialism? We don't even try to curb that.

8. "There is also the violence of (African Americans) having to live in a community and pay higher consumer prices for goods or higher rents for equivalent housing than are charged in white parts of the city."

Banks won't open branches in poor neighborhoods, but they will open Payday Lenders, which trap the poor in debt.

9. "Congress appropriates military funds with alacrity and generosity. It appropriates poverty funds with miserliness and grudging reluctance. The government is emotionally committed to the war. It is emotionally hostile to the needs of the poor."

There is a huge contrast between Congress and the American citizen on what to do about the poor.

10. "Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."

Obama has shown a tiny bit of spine lately, but it took him a long time to find it.

Another quote by King, shared in the comments:

"I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice."

And one from Bobby Kennedy

"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."

Thank you, Martin, for your wisdom.