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   King was more than just talk in this regard. Working through his   
   Operation Breadbasket, King threatened boycotts of businesses   
   that did not hire blacks in proportion to their population.   
      
   King was even an early proponent of reparations. In his 1964   
   book, Why We Can't Wait, he wrote,   
      
   No amount of gold could provide an adequate compensation for the   
   exploitation and humiliation of the Negro in America down   
   through the centuries…Yet a price can be placed on unpaid wages.   
   The ancient common law has always provided a remedy for the   
   appropriation of a the labor of one human being by another. This   
   law should be made to apply for American Negroes. The payment   
   should be in the form of a massive program by the government of   
   special, compensatory measures which could be regarded as a   
   settlement in accordance with the accepted practice of common   
   law.   
      
   Predicting that critics would note that many whites were equally   
   disadvantaged, King claimed that his program, which he called   
   the "Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged" would help poor   
   whites as well. This is because once the blacks received   
   reparations, the poor whites would realize that their real enemy   
   was rich whites.   
      
   Myth # 2: King was an American patriot, who tried to get   
   Americans to live up to their founding ideals.   
      
   In National Review, Roger Clegg wrote that "There may have been   
   a brief moment when there existed something of a national   
   consensus – a shared vision eloquently articulated in Martin   
   Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, with deep roots in   
   the American Creed, distilled in our national motto, E pluribus   
   unum. Most Americans still share it, but by no means all." Many   
   other conservatives have embraced this idea of an American Creed   
   that built upon Jefferson and Lincoln, and was then fulfilled by   
   King and libertarians like Clint Bolick and neocons like Bill   
   Bennett.   
      
   Despite his constant invocations of the Declaration of   
   Independence, King did not have much pride in America's   
   founding. He believed "our nation was born in genocide," and   
   claimed that the Declaration of Independence and Constitution   
   were meaningless for blacks because they were written by slave   
   owners.   
      
   Myth # 3: King was a Christian activist whose struggle for civil   
   rights is similar to the battles fought by the Christian Right   
   today.   
      
   Ralph Reed claims that King's "indispensable genius" provided   
   "the vision and leadership that renewed and made crystal clear   
   the vital connection between religion and politics." He proudly   
   admitted that the Christian Coalition "adopted many elements of   
   King's style and tactics." The pro-life group, Operation Rescue,   
   often compared their struggle against abortion to King's   
   struggle against segregation. In a speech entitled The   
   Conservative Virtues of Dr. Martin Luther King, Bill Bennet   
   described King, as "not primarily a social activist, he was   
   primarily a minister of the Christian faith, whose faith   
   informed and directed his political beliefs."   
      
   Both King's public stands and personal behavior makes the   
   comparison between King and the Religious Right questionable.   
      
   FBI surveillance showed that King had dozens of extramarital   
   affairs. Although many of the pertinent records are sealed,   
   several agents who watched observed him engage in many   
   questionable acts including buying prostitutes with SCLC money.   
   Ralph Abernathy, who King called "the best friend I have in the   
   world," substantiated many of these charges in his   
   autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. It is true that   
   a man's private life is mostly his business. However, most   
   conservatives vehemently condemned Jesse Jackson when news of   
   his illegitimate son came out, and claimed he was unfit to be a   
   minister.   
      
   King also took stands that most in the Christian Right would   
   disagree with. When asked about the Supreme Court's decision to   
   ban school prayer, King responded,   
      
   I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have   
   said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in god. In a   
   pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what   
   prayer shall be spoken and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or   
   otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.   
      
   While King died before the Roe vs. Wade decision, and, to the   
   best of my knowledge, made no comments on abortion, he was an   
   ardent supporter of Planned Parenthood. He even won their   
   Margaret Sanger Award in 1966 and had his wife give a speech   
   entitled Family Planning – A Special and Urgent Concern which he   
   wrote. In the speech, he did not compare the civil rights   
   movement to the struggle of Christian Conservatives, but he did   
   say "there is a striking kinship between our movement and   
   Margaret Sanger’s early efforts."   
      
   Myth # 4: King was an anti-communist.   
      
   In another article about Martin Luther King, Roger Clegg of   
   National Review applauds King for speaking out against the   
   "oppression of communism!" To gain the support of many liberal   
   whites, in the early years, King did make a few mild   
   denunciations of communism. He also claimed in a 1965 Playboy   
   that there "are as many Communists in this freedom movement as   
   there are Eskimos in Florida." This was a bald-faced lie. Though   
   King was never a Communist and was always critical of the Soviet   
   Union, he had knowingly surrounded himself with Communists. His   
   closest advisor Stanley Levison was a Communist, as was his   
   assistant Jack O'Dell. Robert and later John F. Kennedy   
   repeatedly warned him to stop associating himself with such   
   subversives, but he never did. He frequently spoke before   
   Communist front groups such as the National Lawyers Guild and   
   Lawyers for Democratic Action. King even attended seminars at   
   The Highlander Folk School, another Communist front, which   
   taught Communist tactics, which he later employed.   
      
   King's sympathy for communism may have contributed to his   
   opposition to the Vietnam War, which he characterized as a   
   racist, imperialistic, and unjust war. King claimed that America   
   "had committed more war crimes than any nation in the world."   
   While he acknowledged the NLF "may not be paragons of virtue,"   
   he never criticized them. However, he was rather harsh on Diem   
   and the South. He denied that the NLF was communist, and   
   believed that Ho Chi Minh should have been the legitimate ruler   
   of Vietnam. As a committed globalist, he believed that “our   
   loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our   
   nation. This means we must develop a world perspective.”   
      
   Many of King's conservative admirers have no problem calling   
   anyone who questions American foreign policy a "fifth   
   columnist." While I personally agree with King on some of his   
   stands on Vietnam, it is hypocritical for those who are still   
   trying to get Jane Fonda tried for sedition to applaud King.   
      
   Myth # 5: King supported the free market.   
      
   OK, you don't hear this too often, but it happens. For example,   
   Father Robert A. Sirico delivered a paper to the Acton Institute   
   entitled Civil Rights and Social Cooperation. In it, he wrote,   
      
   A freer economy would take us closer to the ideals of the   
   pioneers in this country’s civil rights movement. Martin Luther   
   King, Jr. recognized this when he wrote: "With the growth of   
   industry the folkways of white supremacy will gradually pass   
   away," and he predicted that such growth would "Increase the   
   purchasing power of the Negro [which in turn] will result in   
   improved medical care, greater educational opportunities, and   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)