How Would Martin Luther King Feel About Obama?

It seems as though every time I see a news segment on TV reflecting on the recent election, it ends the same way. In a crowded park in Chicago, a bunch of people are huddled up. They are all weeping and wishing aloud that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was here to witness the election of Barrack Obama.

So, I asked myself, how would MLK feel about Obama? The answer is pretty clear. MLK believed in judging a person by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. So we must ignore the fact that Obama is black.

We do not yet know a whole lot about Obama’s character, but we know enough to that I can point out a few major areas of disagreement between him and MLK. When Obama was a State Senator from Illinois, there was a debate over a bill that dealt with children who survived an abortion attempt. The bill sought to have doctors provide medical care for these children. That does make sense. A baby outside of the womb is a person, and it seems like most medical laws would require doctors to attempt to save the life of a person. But there was a loophole in the state abortion laws in Illinois that required the doctors to deny treatment to these babies. There is a touching story of a nurse in an abortion clinic who found a live baby in a trash can in the broom closet of the clinic she worked in. She tried to talk to doctor into treating the baby, but the doctor refused. So, she held the baby in her arms for three hours until the baby died. 

When the bill was debated on the floor of the Illinois Senate, only one person rose to speak in opposition to it. You guessed it, that person was Barrack Obama. He was asked about this in a Presidential Debate, and insisted that he did not support the bill because it was redundant with federal laws. Not only was his explanation factually incorrect, but if you read the transcript of his speech on the floor of the Senate, you will see that he argued adamantly that a woman’s right to abortion on demand in the state of Illinois meant that the child was to die, wether they were born alive or not.

Another serious problem comes up with Obama’s relationship with William Ayers. For those of you who do not know, William Ayers was the founder of a group that blew up buildings and killed people around the time of the Vietnam War. Mr. Ayers has admitted to personally placing bombs that blew up at the Pentagon and several Army Recruiting Stations. Members of the group that he founded and led were responsible for the assassinations of police officers, government officials, and members of the military. Mr. Ayers even authored a book dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan (Robert Kennedy’s assassin) in which he made a plea to the youth of the nation to “rise up and kill your parents”. He also urged them to kill those in position of authority. Mr. Ayers was arrested and confessed to his crimes, but the charges against him were thrown out on a legal technicality. Seriously, I’m not joking.

Anyway, Obama and Ayers have a long and storied history. To be fair, the extent of their relationship is disputed, but the existence of it is not. Obama sat on at least three different boards with Mr. Ayers, and they met in private on at least two separate occasions.

Now, back to the original question. How would Dr. King feel about this. Well, certainly MLK would not support someone running for office who thinks that babies should legally be allowed to die in trash cans after they born although they are in a clinic with a doctor. In regards to Mr. Ayers, one needs only to look at the relationship between MLK and Malcolm X. MLK and his followers believed in civil disobedience, with the key word being civil. They did protest for civil rights in America, but it was always their goal to do so peacefully so that no one was hurt. Malcolm X, on the other hand, supported the violent overthrow of the white government. Dr. King responded to Malcolm X by refusing to meet with him.

Dr. King would have demanded that if Obama was on a board with William Ayers, Obama stand up immediately and let the rest of the board know that he would not serve on a board with Mr. Ayers. The board would be forced to choose between the two.

Dr. King would not have supported Obama because he would have been able to look past the color of his skin and see how flawed his character really is. It is time for people to stop invoking the name of Dr. King when talking about Obama. I think MLK is in heaven right now, shaking his head at those people in Chicago for taking everything that he worked for so out of context.