(CNN) -- Just imagine. What if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s spirit could appear and whisper his counsel to President Obama? The visit's timing could not be more opportune. Today, we face the country's worst economic crisis since the Depression, poverty continues to grow at home and abroad, and wars across the globe are leaving a wake of death and destruction for generations to come. Notwithstanding America's racial progress -- most viscerally witnessed by Obama himself -- King's dream remains far from realized. King spoke some of the most mellifluous speeches of his era. So does Obama. But King could advise Obama on transforming that uplifting rhetoric into a long-term grassroots effort.
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Rich Benjamin: King would urge President Obama to transform rhetoric into grassroots action
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Benjamin: King's great speeches led a forward-looking movement that still affects society
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King's spirit would urge Obama to rid U.S. of racism, poverty and military conflict, Benjamin says
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Benjamin: King would coax Obama to become a historically transformative leader
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When we forget @placeholder's coalition -- both in the breadth of change it demanded and in the thousands of faces and hearts dedicated to the cause -- we reduce the civil rights movement, from which we still have much to learn, into a warm and fuzzy version of the King mythology.
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"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane," @placeholder declared in 1966.
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This week, @placeholder gets to pat itself on the back for living on the right side of history, racially speaking.
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We are not in a post-racial era, but @placeholder's cool judgment smoothly blunts the pessimism and ill will -- from those on the left and right -- who thrive on racial conflict.