Becoming MLK in America Today a Tall Order

There he is. He looks angelic doesn't he?

It's nearly MLK day, a day too many people overlook as just a day off work/school, and a day when Arizona reminds us how the water down there is apparently filled with racism. Don't worry, TV will do plenty to talk about how awesome MLK was so I won't even attempt that feat, which no one can really capture completely. I'll simply state that he did something no one else in the history of this nation and very few in the history of the world have ever done ... that's how awesome he was. He significantly changed the world. That's one hell of a line on a resume.

Instead of thinking about his amazing accomplishments, I'm thinking more about how hard it is to become an MLK, especially today. Look around. Do you see any MLKs? Any people shifting the course of human perception? Any people sacrificing for the benefit of not only his/her people but all people? Is anyone rising above the crowd of the good and wannabe great to establish themselves as an MLK-like figure? I don't see that taking place. Not in America anyway, maybe in another country or on another planet (you never know), but I can't really speculate about those things.

The thing is, it's very, very difficult to become an MLK in today's America. You would think with the luxury of the Internet and crazy advances in telecommunications that MLK-like leaders would be popping up all over the place, changing the world as fast as a web page will load. But that hasn't been the case. Technology, which seems to connect and isolate us now more than ever, by having us talk from great distances but never in person, hasn't helped produce the next MLK.

Why? It's impossible to point to one factor, but I'd place much of the cause on cynicism. In postmodern America, it's much easier to doubt, tear down, and deconstruct a person and ideal than it is to believe, promote, and help build to some idealized future. MLK had many, many detractors that's true, but he didn't have too many people riding the pine. The weird thing about cynicism is it doesn't turn people against things, it simply makes them turn their backs on issues/people/whatever. There was less cynicism fueled apathy, it seems like (I wasn't around then but it seems like that). Those who supported him did so with fervor, sacrifice, and passion, elements that seem to be in increasingly short supply. Those who opposed him provided the same qualities; they were misguided and ignorant, but involved.

If MLK were around today, would the U.S. stand deaf to his message? Would they put it under a microscope, cut his words to pieces, take the message as simply a curiosity to be studied? Would the masses ride the pine for MLK if he were here today talking about LGBT equality or economic equality? Or racial equality for that matter? There are leaders for all these movements now right?

I see people speaking out on these issues, but I don't see any MLKs. I think we can safely say that in order for an MLK to arise, the right set of circumstances needs to be in place. But the U.S. has the circumstances. We're economically chaotic, on the brink of another war while still waging one, divided on issues of sexuality, economics, immigration, etc. Yet, no one rises. Perhaps MLK personalities are tough to find. People lead these movements, maybe they don't have what MLK had. I think the type of personality that rises to leadership, often carries traits that are either very un-MLK or get torn apart by the spot light. Either their too radical, too selfish, too timid, too awkward, too rigid, or too morally corrupt in other aspects of their lives. That's not to say that MLK was a perfect guy; he wasn't, and maybe today he wouldn't hold up under the weight of being an MLK. Maybe today, the media, and the American cynicism would tear him to pieces.

I would like to see an MLK rise up in my lifetime. The U.S. could certainly use another.Blame my American cynicism, but I'm not sure it can happen. It takes a perfect storm of uncommon goodness, charisma, intelligence, righteousness, and God knows what else mixed with an opportunity and an audience ready to receive. Perhaps some of those things never really existed in MLK, but nobody took the time or had the ability to look hard enough. He was human after all. The man America needed when America needed him.

It's depressing, but I don't know that we'll let that happen again. I don't know that we'll let the best people be people anymore. Those who rise must be more than people now, the way we've made MLK more than a person. He's MLK. He's got his own day, his own streets, his own stamps. He's not a man anymore, and that's part of the problem.