“Even if you are the winner in a rat race, you’re still a rat.”
– Andrew Young, ca. 1967
Another quote from the historical account of MLK, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Toward the end of King’s life, he and the SCLC became committed to pressing for reform of the entire U.S. economic structure that creates and sustains wide gulfs between rich and poor. The comment about not being the winner of a rat race was made in the context of suggesting that the SCLC not simply work for black people to assimilate into an economic system that leaves so many without economic power or opportunity.
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Jonathan Erdman
Writer. In the summers, I live and work in the incredible state of Alaska, in the bush community of McCarthy, as the Executive Director of the Wrangell Mountain Center. When not in McCarthy, you'll typically find me in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, writing and working with local activists. My primary writing project right now is a novel set in remote bush Alaska, of the magical realism genre wherein an earnest and independent young woman finds a mysterious radio belonging to her grandmother, a device that has paranormal bandwidth and a disturbing ability to mess with one's mental stability.
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