Martin Luther King day reflections

If you take only a moment to consider the meaning of this holiday, I highly recommend reading a Wall Street Journal op-ed page piece:

"Dr. King and I; I never met him, but he made me love America" (BY ROYA HAKAKIAN)(registration required). Perspective of an Iranian immigrant on how American racism is portrayed by many outsiders, and how learning of Dr. King and the civil rights movement altered that impression:

Today, in the distant corners where terror is raging, many teenagers hold views on America similar to those I once held. The enemy has an arsenal, but also a narrative.

According to that narrative, the world's superpower represents only one race, and its history is a single tale of intolerance, arrogance, and domination. The war against this enemy is impossible to win without defeating that narrative.

To tell American history in its entirety is to disprove the fabrications about who an American is. To tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement is to tell the story of how arrogance was made to give way to justice by none other than a man who advocated peace. Against the grim and infallible image that is painted of America, this will be a truer portrait: colorful and human.

I'm afraid I was less eloquent and my perspective less exotic, but last year I blogged about my personal thoughts on this day. Readers who weren't with us a year ago may want to take a look at my Dr. King Day thoughts from last year, which are here.