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From: lvc@cbscd5.UUCP (Larry Cipriani)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.politics
Subject: Was King a man of peace ?
Message-ID: <818@cbscd5.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Oct-83 12:45:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbscd5.818
Posted: Tue Oct 18 12:45:25 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Oct-83 00:03:38 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories <SCCS>, Columbus
Lines: 26

A friend of mine wrote the following letter to the editor in one of our
local papers.  I think it is important enough to bring into the discussion 
on Martin Luther King.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In considering the goals, methods, and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther
King, we should dispose of a myth -- that King was a man of peace.

King repeatedly turned to the government as a mechanism for social change;
and behind the acts of government, one ultimately finds the policeman's gun
and the prison guard's night stick.  King did not employ violence directly, but
sought for the government to use coercion.

Of course, the use of force can sometimes be justified and necessary.  But,
when employed, it should be recognized as such, not cloaked with the mystique
of non-violence.

With the illusion of pacifism removed, it becomes possible to view the life
of Dr. King more clearly.  He was a man possessed of great courage, who often
struggled valiantly for justice.  But he had inadequate regard for individual
rights or economic reality; much of what he called for would subvert the
human dignity that he sought to champion.

Larry Cipriani
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