roots of Western predominance. The demand for thenchange at Stanford, according to news reports, was led bynblack, Hispanic, and Asian students, who denounced thentraditional curriculum as a “year-long class in racism.”nThe point, of course, is not that the establishment of thenKing holiday makes the extirpation of the traditional symbolsnof American and Western civilization inevitable —nanti-American and anti-Western movements founded onnmilitant egalitarian universalism are powerful forces andnwould make gains regardless of the holiday—but that, oncenthe United States, through its national government, chose tonadopt Dr. King as an official hero, neither the Americannpeople nor their leaders have any legitimate grounds fornresisting the logic and dynamic of such forces and thenradical reconstruction of American society that is implicit innthem. It is one thing to say that Dr. King was a great mannand a great American, a man whose personal courage andnvision, despite his human flaws, errors, and enthusiasms,nchallenged lesser men of both races and forced them tonconfront evils, falsehoods, and obsolete ways. It is quitenanother to say, as the U.S. government does say in creatingna legal public holiday for him, that Martin Luther King Jr.nwas the most important American who ever lived, at leastnthe peer of George Washington, the Father of his country,nthe only American in history to have his birthday made annational holiday, the man who is now first in the hearts ofnhis countrymen. Conservatives, some of whom like Reps.nJack Kemp and Newt Gingrich voted for the King holidaynin 1983, may devise whatever clever rationales for supportingnit they can imagine, but Mr. Harding’s understanding ofnthe meaning of King’s career is far closer to the truth. In anyncase, aside from obligatory genuflections to King by neoconservatives,n”cultural conservatives,” and the adherents ofnMr. Gingrich’s “Conservative Opportunity Society,” Inknow of not a single serious, sustained effort by those on thencontemporary American right to substantiate their endorsementnof the holiday or of any serious argument whynconservatives should honor Dr. King at all. If there are validnreasons why we should do so, we do not hear them. Whatnwe do hear are sermons from apostles such as Mr. Hardingnand company, most of whom can press a far more persuasivenclaim to Dr. King’s legacy than conservatives of anyndescription.nThat legacy, as its keepers know, is profoundly at oddsnwith the historic American order, and that is why they cannhave no rest until the symbols of that order are pulled upnroot and branch. To say that Dr. King and the cause henreally represented is now part of the official American creed,nindeed the defining and dominant symbol of that creed —nwhich is what both houses of the United States Congressnsaid in 1983 and what President Ronald Reagan signed intonlaw shortly afterwards — is the beginning of a new order ofnthe ages in which the symbols of the old order and thenthings they symbolized can retain neither meaning nornrespect, in which they are as mute and dark as the gods ofnBabylon and Tyre, and from whose cold ashes will rise annew god, leveling their rough places, straightening theirncrookedness, and exalting every valley until the whole earthnis flattened beneath his feet and perceives the glory of thennew lord.nPOWER by John Gable ^ An unlimited edition, signed color print $45 eachnPOWER captures a timeless moment before the startnof a race. With graphic detail POWER reminds us of thenintensity of the rower’s spirit and the challenge withinnoneself.nTo order your POWER print individually signed by thenartist, please complete the form and mail with your check:nTHE ARUNDEL POINT PUBLISHING HOUSEnArundel Point, Post Office Box 1058, Dept. 88CnKennebunkport, Maine 04046n; Please send me POWER prints(s| at $45 each. ‘•n; 1 enclose $ Price includes shipping, handling and insurance. ‘•n; MAINE RESIDENTS PLEASE INCLUDE 5% STATE SALES TAX. THANK YOU ‘•n’. D Please send me additional information on other prints. ;nName ;nAddress ‘.nCity ;’nState -Zip.nnnMAY 19881 29n