On the recordJanuary 19, 2011
Earlier this week, Mr. Speaker, we recognized the 82nd birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the greatest moral and spiritual leader in our Nation's history. Each of us in our way reflected on Dr. King's teaching, and his message had more relevance than ever in light of the tragic shootings in Tucson. It's a sign of progress that a man whose ideas were considered revolutionary during his life has achieved mainstream iconic status in death. But as we all share his legacy, there is a very real danger that some people will, in a self-serving way, distort King's vision to justify the very policies he gave his life opposing. In fact, Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh Johnson has a bizarre, unsettling interpretation of Dr. King's dream. In a speech last week, Mr. Johnson suggested that this great agitator for peace would have endorsed the war in Afghanistan. And I quote him, he said, ``If Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that our Nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack.'' Mr. Speaker, this strikes me as a presumptuous and manipulative distortion of everything Dr. King represented. He was fierce; he was resolute in his opposition to the Vietnam War. It was a courageous, controversial stand that cost him friends and allies. He believed nothing as strongly as the idea that nonviolence was the only route to social change.
