I respect Mr. Cruse’s optimism and belief that our nation has moved closer to Martin Luther King’s “dream.” But he is dead wrong to think that King would be remotely content with the state of our democracy.

As an Associated Press article aptly pointed out on Monday, Dr. King’s message – contrary to what it has become today – went far beyond one-half of one speech. Dr. King stood for racial justice, social justice, economic justice and an end to war.

I doubt that he would take much comfort in the mere fact that “today, black people are lawyers, doctors, professors, CEOs and politicians.” In case you weren’t aware, many blacks held such positions long before King was even born.

But I’m certain he would not take comfort that, over the past eight years, the average income for black families has dropped by more than $2000 over the past decade, or that many more families of all races have lost their homes and jobs as a result of economic policies.

I’m also fairly certain he wouldn’t be too happy about the war in Iraq.

If you really want to know if Dr. King’s aspirations for America have been reached, I suggest you and others who try to rewrite history go beyond “I Have a Dream” and read up on his greater fight for social justice in America and across the world.

As he declared in another famous work, King strongly believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

And with so much injustice still within our midst, there is no way he would be “proud to see America as it is today.”

Letrell Crittenden

Graduate Student