Last week, students eating lunch at the Memorial Union witnessed ASU's homage to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of Black History Month. The celebration of Dr. King's legacy also took place, ironically, within a day of the death of his wife and fellow activist, Coretta Scott King.
When we remember great leaders from decades past, we often seem to emphasize the fact that their message is just as relevant today as it was when they themselves faced the world, nudging humanity along its course towards harmony and brotherhood.
While few would argue that the United States is at a worse place than it was when Dr. King inspired millions to march for equal rights, risking all they had, it is important not to lose sight of the broader vision of leaders like Dr. King.
Like many of the other leaders of the civil rights movement, Dr. King was profoundly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's idea of ahimsa, a religious concept that advocates against violence, was often used as a starting point for activists interested in nonviolent protest.
Beyond political aims however, the method was based in a worldview in which human beings truly become ends in themselves - that is to say, protest should be nonviolent not only because nonviolence is effective, but protest should be nonviolent because to inflict violence on another human in any situation would be unarguably wrong.
Love is the ultimate value in a society based on such a worldview, and it was this uncompromising love that Dr. King championed as he fought for the establishment of a "blessed community." It was his belief in the importance of such a society that led him to become one of the strongest, most vocal opponents of the Vietnam War.
His criticism of the involvement of the United States, which he called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," in Vietnam didn't end specifically with that unique foreign entanglement.
In his speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," King said, "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: 'This is not just.'"
If we are to truly celebrate Dr. King's legacy, it would be an insult not to consider the full implications of his message today. How far have we come, and are our eyes still on the prize? Could the terrorists and growing anti-American sentiments in developing countries be at least partially a result of his prediction?
It would also be disrespectful to claim to know how Dr. King would feel about issues of the day. However, given his criticisms of our foreign policy in the past, it's hard to argue that he wouldn't be saying the same thing today, given our current involvement in the Middle East and South America.
Dr. King's call for a moral revolution did not stop with foreign policy. He even criticized capitalism itself, arguing about the ethics of spending more of our money on our military than on education and building slums that were run for a profit.
We're still looking a very long way down from the number-one position in the world in terms of a military budget, to our schools that still go without new books or supplies.
The United States needs a leader like Dr. King today - a man who boldly transcends the ideologies of the right and the left, eschewing divisional rhetoric to appeal to the best in us all.
Ben is a journalism junior. Reach him at benjamin.horowitz@asu.edu.
