MLK

brianlux

What does this day mean to you?

dancepartner

It means to me:
1) brian is feeling like a rascal today. Thinking to stir it up a bit?
2) Was this day intended to be an acknowledgement of only black/white racism? If so, Rosa Parks symbolizes this better for me.
3) If this day is supposed to be about inequality in general, I'd like to see an annual change, a new symbolic face reflect that each year; i.e. child labor & sweatshops, right to vote, women's lib etc..

brianlux

1. Moi?
2. I think it was simple designated as a day to acknowledge the work of Martin Luther King. And give certain employees (ahem!) the day off. (There I go, stirring it ups again. ) I've heard it said that MLK would not have wanted this to be a holiday- that he would have preferred people carry on with the work that needs to be done. Not sure if this is so.
3 Interesting idea, Dancepartner!

JC29856

MLK spoke truth, he stood for the oppressed, not just the "blacks"
Over the years his legacy has been perverted and bastardized
One of the greatest Americans to ever live
Mountaintop speech is awesome, the end he is basically saying... I know Im a dead man, but Im not scared, not worried, you're scared, you're worried, kill me the man but you cant kill the message

What would you do if you KNEW that what you stood for would kill you? Would you still take to the streets, speak and march against the powerful?

.........
And they were telling me --. Now, it doesn't matter, now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

JC29856

"unjust war distracted from domestic social programs"

JC29856

"I don't think loyalty to the country should be measured by our ability to kill. I think our loyalties to the country should be measured by our ability to lead the nation to higher heights of democracy and the great dream of justice and humanity"

JC29856

"Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: 'Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?' 'Why are you joining the voices of dissent?' 'Peace and civil rights don't mix,' they say. 'Aren't you hurting the cause of your people,' they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

JC29856

brianlux wrote:

What does this day mean to you?

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

brianlux

JC29856 wrote:

brianlux wrote:

What does this day mean to you?

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Good quote, JC.

JimmyV

Unfortunately it doesn't mean much. I think MLK was a heroic man who did wonderful work and whose murder was a tragedy, but I am not sure we need a day for him specifically. There are many icons of the civil rights movement who should be honored as well.

JC29856

JimmyV wrote:

Unfortunately it doesn't mean much. I think MLK was a heroic man who did wonderful work and whose murder was a tragedy, but I am not sure we need a day for him specifically. There are many icons of the civil rights movement who should be honored as well.

id be very surprised if MLK looks at it as an honor!

JC29856

how does the US reconcile / justify "honoring" a man who believed this:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

JC29856

Stokely Carmichael warning King, "The Man don’t care you call ghettos concentration camps, but when you tell him his war machine is nothing but hired killers you got trouble." Carmichael was right.

know1

MLK was/is my hero, but a holiday where it's primarily just the government taking the day off doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, Obama then ignored the holiday by making all the inauguration workers work and I kind of wonder why nobody brought that up.

JC29856

The Army’s interest in the King family stretched back to 1917 when the War Department opened a file on King’s maternal grandfather, first president of Atlanta’s branch of the NAACP. King’s father, Martin Sr., also entered Army intelligence files as a potential troublemaker, as did Martin Jr. in 1947 when he was 18. He was attending Dorothy Lilley’s Intercollegiate School in Atlanta and 111th Military Intelligence Group in Fort McPherson in Atlanta suspected Ms Lilley of having Communist ties.

King’s famous denunciation of America’s war in Vietnam came exactly a year before his murder, before a crowd of 3,000 in the Riverside Church in Manhattan. He described Vietnam’s destruction at the hands of ”deadly Western arrogance,” insisting that ”we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.

The Army increased surveillance on King. Green Berets and other Special Forces veterans from Vietnam began making street maps and identifying sniper sites in major American cities. The Ku Klux Klan was recruited by the 20th Special Forces Group, headquartered in Alabama, as a subsidiary intelligence network. The Army began offering 30.06 sniper rifles to police departments, including that of Memphis. King was dogged by spy units through early ’67. A Green Beret unit was operating in Memphis the day he was shot. The bullet that killed him came from a 30.06 rifle purchased in a Memphis store. Army intelligence chiefs became increasingly hysterical over the threat of King to national stability.

Cosmo

know1 wrote:

MLK was/is my hero, but a holiday where it's primarily just the government taking the day off doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, Obama then ignored the holiday by making all the inauguration workers work and I kind of wonder why nobody brought that up.

...
I understand your hatred for Obama... but, you have to pin this on on the Constitution, not Obama.
Amendment 20 of the Constitution of The United States of America:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
...
So, you need to blame our Constitution for this one and file your grievences with it.

know1

Cosmo wrote:

know1 wrote:

MLK was/is my hero, but a holiday where it's primarily just the government taking the day off doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, Obama then ignored the holiday by making all the inauguration workers work and I kind of wonder why nobody brought that up.

...
I understand your hatred for Obama... but, you have to pin this on on the Constitution, not Obama.
Amendment 20 of the Constitution of The United States of America:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
...
So, you need to blame our Constitution for this one and file your grievences with it.

Not at all.

They were sworn in yesterday. They are not mandated to have a big party today on a government holiday meant to honor MLK. They could have had it yesterday, couldn't they?

I have no specific hatred for Obama. I pretty much hate all elected officials equally. They are all doing a grievous disservice to the public they are supposed to serve.

Cosmo

know1 wrote:

Cosmo wrote:

know1 wrote:

MLK was/is my hero, but a holiday where it's primarily just the government taking the day off doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, Obama then ignored the holiday by making all the inauguration workers work and I kind of wonder why nobody brought that up.

...
I understand your hatred for Obama... but, you have to pin this on on the Constitution, not Obama.
Amendment 20 of the Constitution of The United States of America:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
...
So, you need to blame our Constitution for this one and file your grievences with it.

Not at all.

They were sworn in yesterday. They are not mandated to have a big party today on a government holiday meant to honor MLK. They could have had it yesterday, couldn't they?

I have no specific hatred for Obama. I pretty much hate all elected officials equally. They are all doing a grievous disservice to the public they are supposed to serve.

...
On the same day as the Conference Championship games that decides on who goes to the Super Bowl?
You know... in America, other than Super Bowl Sunday, that is the greatest religious holiday of them all. The South would have declared a Civil War because Atlanta was one of the four teams.

know1

Cosmo wrote:

On the same day as the Conference Championship games that decides on who goes to the Super Bowl?
You know... in America, other than Super Bowl Sunday, that is the greatest religious holiday of them all. The South would have declared a Civil War because Atlanta was one of the four teams.

All I'm saying is that I'm surprised I don't hear more people wondering why they basically negated a government holiday meant to honor an American hero by requiring a bunch of people in Washington to work on a day they were supposed to have off.

Nevermind stealing the thunder from any parades or observances.

brianlux

know1 wrote:

Cosmo wrote:

know1 wrote:

MLK was/is my hero, but a holiday where it's primarily just the government taking the day off doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, Obama then ignored the holiday by making all the inauguration workers work and I kind of wonder why nobody brought that up.

...
I understand your hatred for Obama... but, you have to pin this on on the Constitution, not Obama.
Amendment 20 of the Constitution of The United States of America:
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
...
So, you need to blame our Constitution for this one and file your grievences with it.

Not at all.

They were sworn in yesterday. They are not mandated to have a big party today on a government holiday meant to honor MLK. They could have had it yesterday, couldn't they?

I have no specific hatred for Obama. I pretty much hate all elected officials equally. They are all doing a grievous disservice to the public they are supposed to serve.

That's a lot of hatred.

"Love and only love will endure
Hate is everything you think it is."
-Neil Young

Just a thought- not meaning to provoke.

JC29856

Boston University, where King received his Ph.D. in systematic theology, conducted an investigation that found he plagiarized major portions of his doctoral thesis from various other authors who wrote about the topic.

Boston University decided not to revoke his doctorate, saying that although King acted improperly, his dissertation still "makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship." However, a letter is now attached to King's dissertation in the university library, noting that numerous passages were included without the appropriate quotations and citations of sources.