Transcript
JONATHAN RIEDER: So I think if we leave King up on the pedestal, he gives us solace that we’ve done our work. “Oh, there was this bad time before, but freedom -- now we have freedom,” and it becomes an instrument of smug self-congratulation. And it does a disservice to the man and, I think, a disservice to the vision of the best in American society.
The notion of a perfectible union suggests that democracy is a process and ideal. We’re never celebrating a finished effort -- "Oh, we are perfect" -- it’s a notion that we can always perfect our union by looking at suffering and inequality and injustice. So if we leave King up there on the pedestal in the way I intended, then King is a kind of nice, feel-good historical figure who has no relevance, and doesn’t instruct us. . .I think it’s important because I think we underestimate the importance of King if we make him a convenient kind of self-congratulatory figure. Because there’s a lot of work to be done.
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