MLK Post #2

In the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama, I want to post something that encourages open-mindedness and healing across the ideological divide. David Brooks has a very good column about Martin Luther King today. He actually went to the hotel where he was shot to write this column. You've got to give him props for that. He ends with this line:

Martin Luther King Jr. at least left behind a model of how to repair the social fabric. He was scholarly, formal, assertive and meticulously self-controlled in public. If Barack Obama’s presidential campaign represents anything, it is the triumph of King’s early-60s style of activism over the angry and reckless late-60s style. King was in crisis when he was gunned down. But his inspiration is outlasting his critics.

It's a conservative's appreciation for the man. Conservatives occasionally claim formality and self-discipline as their values, and sometimes they're right. But props again to Brooks for recognizing his values in King, and implicitly acknowledging that those values transcend ideology.

If I have one wish for today, it's that lots and lots of people, particularly John McCain, read this column. Not because I think they should try and learn something from it, but because I have faith that they can.