the way that he did. King was a bravenman and a world-historical figure. ButnGarrow’s research in the FBI filesnmakes it obvious that he was also ancompulsive philanderer.nMaybe King felt bad about it. Maybenhe suffered from what my buddynJ.R. calls “the heartbreak of satyriasis.”nGarrow doesn’t say, although TaylornBranch’s new book suggests that hendid. Nevertheless, King continued tonmisbehave even after it was perfectlynplain that the walls had ears.nI don’t believe we have a “right tonknow” about these activities. But —nfollow this closely, now — I don’t agreenwith those who argue that Garrownshouldn’t have reported them. I’d arguenthat David had no right to suppressnwhat he learned. Like the courts, goodntruth-telling scholarship and journalismnrequire the truth, the whole truth,nand nothing but the truth. Scholarsnand journalists should not withholdnfacts that are part of the story that theynare telling (as Jack Kennedy’s hagiographersnpresumably did).nAnd certainly not from fear of consequences.nShortly after Garrow’s booknappeared, a historian worried in mynpresence about “what happens whennthe rednecks get hold of this.” Well,nbrother (I told him), I’ve got news fornyou: the rednecks already knew aboutnthis. They were telling me about it anquarter-century ago. In my youthfulnFreudian wisdom I thought they weren”projecting,” and they may have been,nbut even a blind hog gets an acornnsometimes. What’s more, all of mynfriends with even the remotest connectionnto “the movement” now assurenme that, of course, they knew all aboutnthis, too. If Garrow’s revelationsnhaven’t had much in the way of politicalnconsequences, it may be becausenI’m the only American who didn’tnknow that King was a womanizer.nBut even if those revelations somehowndiscredited the movement as wellnas its leader, I think Garrow wasnobliged to report them. When biographersnlearn something that shedsnlight on their subjects’ characters, ornwhen journalists learn somethingnnewsworthy about figures in the publicneye, the canons of their professionnrightly require that they tell us. In othernwords, once Garrow learned aboutnKing’s sex life, he could tell us about itnor drop his project altogether, but henhad no right to present a distortednpicture.nI know an anthropologist who disagrees.nBasically, like the historian, shenfears that Garrow’s account will givenaid and comfort to the bad guys. It’snnot surprising that this same womannonce wrote a book that didn’t mentionnthe economic base of the communitynshe studied, which was burglary. Shenfelt that it would put the community innan unfavorable light; people, she said,n”wouldn’t understand.” But public relationsnbe damned: her job as an anthropologistnwas to make us understand,nto tell us about that community.nAnd she didn’t do it. She should havenhelped us to see what that activity looksnlike from inside — where, I’m sure, itnlooks very different.nJust so, Garrow would have beennwrong not to tell us what he learnednabout King. He was writing scholarlynbiography, not a brief for canonization.nIf I have a quarrel with him, it’s that hendoesn’t begin to explain what he foundn— indeed, doesn’t seem to recognizenthat anything needs explaining.nOn the other hand, it seems to menthat the FBI had not only the right butnthe obligation to suppress that information.nTheir job isn’t biography — innfact, they ought to be in the business ofnkeeping secrets. It’s appalling that theynhad those motel-room tapes in the firstnplace; bugging King’s room was a grossnviolation of an American citizen’s’nrights, impossible to justify even by thenwell-founded suspicion that one of hisnpals was a Communist. But releasingnthe tapes or transcripts to people likenDave Garrow compounds the offense.nAnd the fact that the Bureau had nonchoice under the Freedom of InformationnAct strikes me as still anothernreason that law needs rethinking.nWhere does this stop? Can I take thosenFBI tapes and produce an LP?nI’m unhappy to learn about thisnaspect of Dr. King’s life. I don’t thinknthe world is a better place because wenknow about it, and it may be worse.nBut I’m not sore at Garrow for doingnhis job. I’m sore at the FBI for eavesdroppingnin the first place, and fornreleasing this material in the second.nAs for Martin Luther King — well, Infind I’m becoming more tolerant innlarge matters, less so in small (peoplencan’t always keep their marriage vows,nbut they can turn their damn radiosnnndown). Still, I’m sore at Dr. King fornhis unwillingness or inability to keepnhis pants on. There would have beennnothing to tape, nothing to release,nnothing to publish, nothing to explain,nif King had behaved as a clergyman —nhell, as a husband — ought. There is ancruel irony in the fact that this man,nwho made such a powerful appeal tonconscience, should himself have had anconscience in this respect so manifestlyninadequate.nPolitical and moral leaders ought tonbehave themselves for the same reasonnas the rest of us, and for one morenreason, peculiar to themselves: misbehaviornby a leader betrays his cause.nReligious broadcasting will be a longntime recovering from the blows thatnJim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart dealtnit. The political allies of Gary Hart andnJohn Tower aren’t likely to forgiventhem anytime soon. Martin LuthernKing endangered not only his ownngood name, but the movement he led.nJohn Shelton Reed has recentlynreturned to Chapel Hill, NorthnCarolina, from Catalonia.nLetter From thenHeartlandnby Jane GreernWaking Up Middle-Aged innthe New AgenThere I was, nearly 36, being paid to donmundane work (but not paid nearlynenough), unable to finish any of thenlarge writing projects I’d been workingnat, and victim of a series of professionalndisappointments. This was a far crynfrom the international literary fame I’dnenvisioned at age 19.1 was old, and thisnwas life: nothing would ever get better.nThen the New Age came to mynrescue.nIn desperation, I had begun listeningnto a set of self-help motivationalntapes. Dear God, they were likenM&M’s to a chocaholic! I learned thatnI was in charge of my own destiny; thatnit’s what’s inside me that counts, notnwhat’s going on around me. I learnednto make goals, and my little notebooknwas never far from me. I boned up onnmy assertiveness.nAUGUST 1989/41n