He Can’t Be Serious

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a crusader not only for racial equality but also for economic justice.  Those efforts were inextricably intertwined for the civil rights iconic leader.  For instance, the 1963 March on Washington was actually called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  In the last year of his life, King directed most of his energy into the Poor People’s Campaign, an organization dedicated to advocating for economic justice.

Economic inequality, including racially-stratified inequality, has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. President Barack Obama has even referred to inequality as the defining challenge of our time.  Compare Dr. King’s and President Obama’s stance on economic inequality to this bit of lunacy.

On Jan. 27, Talking Points Memo reported on a bazillionaire named Tom Perkins, one of the world's wealthiest and most successful Silicon Valley venture capitalists, for an op-ed he wrote in the Wall Street Journal comparing the rising criticisms of income inequality and of the 1 percent to Kristallnacht.  To quote Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of TPM:

"Just so we're all on the same page, Kristallnacht ("the night of shattered glass") was essentially the opening act of Hitler's Final Solution. It took place on November 9th and 10th, 1938. This claim manages simultaneously to be so logically ridiculous and morally hideous that Perkins deserves every bit of abuse he's already receiving."

Indeed he does.

Michele Petrovsky, Webmaster at Tools4Change Author of, Cathedral or Bazaar?  Fix Higher Education – Teach by the Seat of Your Pants , Donkey Dharma, and Quick Guide to Linux Glen Mills, Pa.

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