Honor Dr. King by taking action

Friends,

On his TV show Friday night, Bill Moyers included a brief (7 minute) segment on the relationship of President Johnson and Martin Luther King (and more broadly, the civil rights movement) that was eloquent, inspiring, and mesmerizing. It is available on YouTube and I encourage you to view it and spread the word to others.  It really cuts through a lot of the recent tempest about the respective roles of, and credit due to, MLK and LBJ around civil rights legislation, honors the memory of Dr. King, puts LBJ's efforts in proper perspective, and addresses the broader theme of the importance of having both "outside agitators" and inside deal-makers to win progressive legislation.

Obviously, the best way to honor Dr. King's memory is to take action to promote social justice.  Filmmaker Robert Greenwald (who produced the brilliant "Iraq for Sale" and "Wal-Mart" documentaries) has produced yet another short documentary as part of a campaign to get the Presidential candidates to support higher taxes on the super-rich. Watch the video and then help by signing the petition to presidential candidates demanding they pledge to close the loopholes and tax the tax dodgers. Buyout billionaires are a menace to our economy.

People are hurting, badly, and we must take beginning steps to bring the issue of corporate greed and economic equality to the nation's attention.  As Greenwald says, we all know Dr. King because of his historic impact on civil rights, but many don't realize that later in life he fought just as passionately for the rights of workers and against the entrenched institutions of injustice : "Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week." The War on Greed  is exactly this kind of fight. The livelihoods of families have been directly attacked by the actions of buyout billionaires like Henry Kravis putting Wall Street's special interests ahead of his 800,000 employees... and pocketing $51,000 an hour in the process. 

Thanks.

Peter Dreier