"To see living memorials to King, visit the 'Occupy' protests"

So opines Robert McCartney in today's Washington Post:

...Is there any doubt that King would be marching today with the demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street movement, urging liberal reforms of the U.S. economy? That he’d be supporting the protesters who have erected camps in two squares in downtown Washington, as well as in New York and other cities?

Although King achieved fame by leading the fight against racial segregation, he also was deeply committed to economic justice....

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Of course, the new movement is only in its infancy. It must overcome significant obstacles before it can dream of achieving the success King had with the civil rights effort.

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If the activists in the parks can find a way to connect with the poor in the job-placement hall, then they could build a movement that would honor Dr. King as much as the new statue on hallowed ground between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials....

Meanwhile, commenting on Obama's speech today at the dedication of the memorial to Martin Luther King, the Washington Post states as follows:

...In a speech that at times seemed to link King’s own struggles for civil rights with Obama’s political struggles during the economic downturn, the president said the nation was still encountering many of the same challenges that King saw when he made his “I Have a Dream” speech that helped to galvanize the civil rights movement in 1963.

Obama told more than 10,000 spectators and dignitaries who helped unveil the King monument on the national Mall that in many communities little has changed.

“In too many troubled neighborhoods across the county, the conditions of our poorest citizens appear little changed from what existed 50 year ago,” he said.

“There are neighborhoods with underfunded schools and broken down slums, inadequate health care . . .violence. Our work is not done.”

“So on this day when we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for our country let us draw strength from those earlier struggles,” Obama said.

Making changes that might rock the status quo, as King and other civil rights leaders attempted with civil disobedience, sit-ins, and marches, is no easy task, the president said. And that lesson, he said, could be applied today....

Here comes the big tent approach? The race card in play, too?

There is also the following in the article above:

“Let us draw strength from those earlier struggles,” said Obama, adding that the nation today is “more fair and more free and more just” than the one King addressed.

King was attacked for his activism, labeled a communist and accused of lacking patriotism, but he also encouraged reconciliation among those who disagreed with one another, a path that Obama said the nation should follow today.

“I know we will overcome. I know there are better days ahead,” Obama said to applause. “Let us keep striving, let us keep struggling, let us keep climbing to that promised land of a nation and a world that is more fair and more just.”

As Obama began to speak, the crowd drowned him out by shouting “four more years,” but then fell quiet....

Clearly, Obama is playing two (or more sides) in his speech today.

Listeners to and readers of Obama's speech will perceive Obama's words according to the listeners' and readers' viewpoints of the present economic and political situation.

We are watching Obama the demagogue attempt to consolidate his power and secure his own re-election: by appearing to unite while really dividing and conquering.

Excerpts from Obama's speech today: