THE REAL KING WAS A RADICAL WE NEED AGAIN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993                   TAG: 9301180336
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WILLIAM S. GEIMER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
THE REAL KING WAS A RADICAL WE NEED AGAIN
THE APPROACH of each annual observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. evokes in me a very mixed response. I am proud that the nation sees fit to honor the life of this man. I am re-inspired by reflecting on it.
But as the years have passed and the holiday observances have become more or less standardized, I have come to regret deeply the loss of the lessons of Martin's radicalism. Each year, his image becomes more and more that of nonthreatening, vanilla good-guy.
To those of us whom he inspired, he was certainly not that. To those in high places during his life, he was certainly not that. He was a major threat to the established order of things, and were he alive today he would be just as much of a threat.
To be sure, Martin Luther King Jr. was an inspiration to many. I have long believed that he did much more for white folks than anyone recognizes.
Here was a man, not the stuff of heroes, beset with weaknesses and sins and shortcomings, who did his best to live out the Christian gospel. He was a human with whom we can identify who showed us that we can do better and be better in spite of ourselves. He lived and preached love and nonviolence.
Unfortunately, that is where the story ends in the new, repackaged version of Martin Luther King Jr.
To those in power in this violent country today, there is nothing really threatening about getting together once a year and cooing about love and nonviolence in the abstract. It surely couldn't hurt to join hands and sing "We Shall Overcome." The problem is, overcoming hate and violence is the last thing we really want to do.
If we were honest, we would close those little ceremonies with a silent prayer of thanks that Martin is no longer here to challenge us. You see, his love and nonviolence was not of the "gentle Jesus meek and mild" variety. It was the in-your-face, "this is abominable and you must stop it" variety.
And he wasn't just talking about making Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus. He actively opposed the war in Vietnam and, if he were alive, he would actively oppose our little chauvinistic military indulgences in Panama and the Persian Gulf. If he were alive, he would deplore the resurgence of a racist death penalty in this country. If he were alive, the FBI would not have closed its extensive file on him. If he were alive, he would not be so popular and we would not be so arrogantly comfortable.
But Martin is not alive. He was murdered on April 4, 1968. I remember where I was when I heard the news just as clearly as I remember Nov. 22, 1963. But there is a whole generation now that has no personal recollection of him or of those times. All they get is the mush.
I am still moved to tears by "We Shall Overcome." But I would rather see kids learn more of the truth.

William S. Geimer is professor of law at Washington and Lee University.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB