Martin Luther King Jr. day, 2009

Thoughts on Martin Luther King Jr. day from Scott at Powerline. Think of the language of King's Letter from Birmingham Jail the next time you read or hear the language of some of today's loopy, unfocused political activists. And also those activists who are very focused, but who resort to personal vilification of their political or intellectual opponents because they are short on facts.

If some of them could write or speak like King, maybe they could persuade some of those who don't agree with them, instead of just riling up the people who already agree with them. But to write or speak like King, they would have to rein in their narcissism and their personal emotion, and their positions would probably be at least a little bit different. King spoke effectively to his supporters and also presented arguments which were difficult for many of his opponents to counter, because he referred so persuasively to some of his opponents' best values, using common cultural references (many of them based in scripture).

Here's a piece remembering civil rights fighters on the day before Barak Obama's inauguration. And here's an interesting observation from Glenn Reynolds on a poll concerning race relations in America.