“Everyone knows — even the smallest kid knows about Martin Luther King — can say his most famous moment was that ‘I have a dream’ speech,” said Henry Louis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning. “No one can go further than one sentence. All we know is that this guy had a dream. We don’t know what that dream was…”
King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues at the time of his death. He had spoken out against the Vietnam War and was in Memphis when he was killed in April 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers.
By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of many newspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House had suffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history…
But he took on issues of poverty and militarism because he considered them vital “to make equality something real and not just racial brotherhood but equality in fact,” Sitkoff said.
“We’re living increasingly in a culture of top 10 lists, of celebrity biopics which simplify the past as entertainment or mythology,” said Richard Greenwald. “We lose a view on what real leadership is by compressing him down to one window.”
Folks still seem – most often – to want to deal with one issue at a time. So many – causes of the effects that people challenge – are interrelated.
Maybe people would know a little more about this side of MLK if his family wouldn’t sue everyone that uses clips of his speeches.
Maybe the family sues because they know something and don’t want the truth about MLK revealed. He isn’t the hero of Black America that we are all led to believe, after all. The truth shall set us all free!
#2–Hey Slimeball–what human foibles are you referring to? Not that its at all relevant to what MLK said besides/after “I Have a Dream”. In context, you imply that you don’t have any dreams and think that everything was peachy-keen in the 60’s, and probably today as well?
Is that what you think (sic!) or do you have anything specific to offer?
“Maybe, maybe?”
Maybe you’re a couple of dweebs who couldn’t give a shit about dealing with racism?
I’d noticed there was not all that much coverage of what he said and did.
Then again, the same can be said of quite a few people. Researching what someone was up to before the internet can be really hard, unless you are in a major city and know where to go for the information.
No one says much about Malcom X, either. He was the one who said “Whitey wrote the laws to benifit Whitey. Black man should not obey Whity’s laws.” And the crime rate went straight up. And most of the criminals were Black. And most of the victims were Black.
Yea, Malcolm X grew up in the slums but overcame (most of it) as he grew. Change over time–coming to grips with reality==a good thing.
And MLK cheated on his wife. His work for racial justice was not based on him preaching marital values.
When demanding perfection from our leaders, we are actually demanding no leadership at all.
Malcolm and MLK both have alot to teach us.
IMO, King was a great man that, like all men, had flaws. In King’s case, his flaw was his lack of marital fidelity and his treatment of women. So, while it should not detract from the great strides he made in racial justice, it does take the luster from claims of being a moral leader. In addition, while I think he was a great man, do I think him as great as say Washington and thus deserving of his own holiday? No. However there is benefit in having people remember the mistakes of the past in the hopes of correcting them in the present and future. In that light, it is hard to argue that MLK day has not had a positive effect.
I think it’s terrible that I didn’t get the day off today to celebrate the birth of um..whats his name? The guy with all the streets named after him in bad neighborhoods.
This country needs to remember it’s civil rights leaders now more than ever. The man did wonderful things in his time and he is still sadly missed. We could use a guy like him right now.
#9–IGW==excellent. Nice mash up.
What he went through as a kid is a good example of why we need actual history taught in school, instead of this idiotic pablum that has been offered as history for at least 50 years that I know of.
A frown can be “intimidation” these days. Huh. Try standing a very real risk of being drug out in the street and beat to death.
Come to think of it, whites stand that risk by going into a black bar in some cities.
Bigotry is bigotry, no matter the skin color or accent.
Some things never change…
“”As I have walked,” King told the crowd assembled in Riverside Church a year before his assassination, “among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.
But they asked, and rightly so, what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.” Martin Luther King
So, if I couldn’t care less about this holiday – as a matter of fact I find it an annoyance that I don’t get mail nor can I do any banking – does that make me a racist? A bigot?
I’m SO anxious to hear the replies from the group that peruses this blog.
#14–thats easy. Do you feel the same on other holidays that stop the mail?
If not, yes, you are a racist.
If you do, you are just a self absorbed dolt.
Or in your fantasies, do you have a third option?
Well, I suppose that your analysis might be correct, but there is another option that you are probably so far removed from it’s no surprise that it didn’t occur to you. I’m employed.
#16–HAR, HAR!!
Gee, who employs someone that can’t answer a direct question, or doesn’t realize the answer is totally irrelevant?
Dolt. Round 2. Try again.
#14, NJK, “So, if I couldn’t care less about this holiday – as a matter of fact I find it an annoyance that I don’t get mail nor can I do any banking – does that make me a racist? A bigot?”
Not necessarily, but it does appear that you are unenlightened, apathetic, and self-absorbed.
Just be thankful your stock markets were closed today, and that you have a job… make that- still have a job.
#17 – My question to YOU, is who employs someone who’s been posting on the same blog since 11:51 in the morning? I can see that you truly have a life of substance. So kindly return to your occupation of replenishing used urinal cakes.
And #18 – how does disagreeing with the premise of this holiday make me unenlightened, apathetic and self-absorbed? I simply disagree with it.
MLK’s speech title, long version…
“I Have a Dream of a United States that lives up to its Constitution, and this is what it would look like”
“And #18 – how does disagreeing with the premise of this holiday make me unenlightened, apathetic and self-absorbed? I simply disagree with it.”
unenlightened: You don’t appreciate the achievements and ultimate sacrifice of a champion for human rights and freedoms
apathetic: You benefit from rights and freedoms of living in the USA, but “couldn’t care less” about a holiday that celebrates those values.
self-absorbed: You find it an annoyance that you don’t get mail or can do any banking, or take a day off work… on a day that honors a man that made it possible for other people to do those things that you take for granted.
#19–njk==C’mon==no third response possible?
The easy one is to admit you are both. Yes, racist and self absorbed, and not in a good way. But given the answer you continue to give, we do have to add dimwitted even on advice and a second chance.
In ambiguous circumstances, we generally go with what we know–urinal cakes since I take it you couldn’t figure out the reference on your own.
OK–third chance===go for it.
Bobbo – No. I choose not to play your impish games of anonymous internet insults.
Would that it were that we were able to have a civilized disagreement about a race issue without the knee-jerk “you’re a racist” tripe. But we can’t. (By the way, the minute you throw out the “You’re a racist” bomb – YOU’VE already lost the argument. Your type can’t help it. It’s Pavlovian.) If you didn’t call one who disagrees with you a racist, I’m sure you’d be calling them a Nazi in no time.
It’s how your type rolls.
People like you (yes- I just said that AGAIN) are simply incapable of having a discussion about race or social policy without that tactic.
I took a shot with the “urinal cake” blast, it landed pretty well.
But then I realized that I was getting to sound like people like you.
And it doesn’t change the fact that MLK day is a waste of time. And you cannot evaluate someone’s character based on that opinion.
Maybe one day we could get together one day and discuss this at a restaurant over an appetizer and do it with an aura of civility.
But alas, your kind doesn’t usually do such things.
I’m just wondering if there is a way to get around the family’s hogging of all the speeches. Can a court case be made that argues that they are public domain, and should be usable by anyone?
njk, you’re probably just an average hard working guy, underpaid and overworked that has a jaded view of living. Understandable, and unfortunately very commonplace. Tons of tax money that could do a lot of good, goes into the sewer to fund wars instead of a better national health plan, or any number of uplifting progressive benefits for taxpayers to make life better. Governments today are really abusive of the working class that support them. I’m pissed about that too.
But there are a few exceptional people who manage to get the nerve to stand up and challenge the system, and actually bring about change. I admire anyone who has the disposition to take on a challenge like that, for unselfish reasons and the good of everyone and to see it through whether their life is in danger or not.
MLK day may be a waste of time for you, and I’m sorry to hear that. The US is in a terrible state. You are on the verge of a recession, and Georgie’s solution is a fricken tax cut. The whole world reacted to that bit of stupidity today. Hopefully there’s another MLK personality out there that can kick-start Americans (and Canadians) out of their apathetic trance.
I’m sorry you lost a day’s pay (if that’s what’s bothering you) But if things don’t change soon, it’s possible you won’t have a job before too long… and wouldn’t it be great if someone got up and did something about that. Maybe they’d deserve a holiday too.
#12 – Exactly right.
#14 – Any paid holiday is good, ’cause it mean I’m not at work.
The dream he spoke of in Washington was a radical departure from his previous exploits. He began to speak strongly against the war. He also wanted to reduce the economic and justice disparities for all — not just blacks.
The experts say the “Dream” speech was not his best work (http://aroundcentralflorida.com/features/mlk/) but rather his Letter from Birmingham Jail. He used that letter to think through what he wanted to do.
I’m not real concerned about using it because that particular document is in the public domain.
#23–njk==Wow. What an incompetent dissembler you are.
Go back and read your first post #14–quote “I don’t get mail nor can I do any banking – does that make me a racist? A bigot?”
And you do further reveal your putrid heart by characterizing adiscussion of the MLK holiday as “a race issue.” Freud rolls in his grave. I guess if we celebrated his birthday (as we should along with Darwin and Einstein) you would call that a Jewish issue?
So==YOU asked the question and were given a choice that was developed in continuing thread:
Are you:
1. A racist
2. A bigot
3. Just self absorbed
4. Stupid
Your response rather than choosing was first to brag that you had a job and suspected I did not. Now you are claiming my challenge to you is a racist ploy.
Anything getting thru to you? Actually, your last post shows some adequate compositional skills but as shown it continues to reveal your wholly inadequate social/personal skills.
I would think you would welcome any vacation from work so you could increase your dead fly collection or whatever you do for amusement.
OK–number 4==Why do you depreciate MLK celebrations? Is it really limited to the fact there is one day per year you can’t do banking? and BTW–there is a new thingy called the internet that allows banking 24/7. You just give that a try.