As Elyas said, MLK’s dream was far broader than its popular representation. In fact, he had lost much of his popularity for being against Vietnam and focusing on anti-poverty issues, but viewed those as integral to civil rights. Most interesting to me, he spoke out against “”socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor,” a theme that obviously dominates today. I’d be really interested if anyone that was around then wants to chime in with recollections.

Yet even when it comes to the civil rights movement, it’d be interesting to see what Martin Luther King would think if he were still around. I think that the divide between the externally-oriented civil rights leaders (Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc.) and the internally oriented educational, artistic (if you ever get a chance go to a talk by Chuck D), religious and business movements is quite interesting and something I’m slowly learning more about.

Here is a Boondocks episode that imagines what MLK would find if he hadn’t died, but instead was in a coma until the year 2000. If you haven’t heard of Boondocks or Aaron McGruder, well I’ll just say that it is very biting and NSFW…but a lot of people find it uncomfortably accurate. Ironically, Al Sharpton criticized the episode for being in your face (well, using an offensive word), but didn’t actually address the underlying message; hilariously strengthening McGruder’s points. It was done a couple years ago and Obama’s inauguration tomorrow is a nice counterpoint to the end of the episode.