BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...

Subject: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 08:36 PM

Well, I'm kinda surprised that on this 40th years since Dr, King's death that no one has taken a momemnt to start a thred to commemorate this day but...

...nevermind that...

I miss you, Dr. King... America has suffered terribly not having you grow wiith US...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 08:41 PM

Um, Bobert. The reason why we celebrate King on his birthday instead of his deathday is because we celebrate his life, not his death.

But if it makes you feel better...

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 09:01 PM

Go tell the thousands of folks who showed up in Memphis today to commemorate not only his life but the sadness of his assination, GG...

And this ain't about makin' me "feel better"... Maybe you just don't have a clue... It's about the end of a man's life... A man who changed the hearts and thinking of millions of people... Yes, this is a sad day but one where we can reflect on Dr. Kings teachings...

Yeah, GG, you have no right to patronize me (or anyone) for starting this thread... It just shows just how out of touch you are with the realities of the movement...

Now go try to wiggle out of this one...

"Makes (me) feel better"???

You are friggin' insane!!!!

Go peedle yer ego trip elsewhere...

Square business...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 09:02 PM

I listened to McCain apologize for voting against his holiday. It was kind of touching though all those umbrellas.

Obama gave a very nice speech. It is his forte and he is passionate about the topic.

Hillary remembered listening to him speak.

Morning Joe had some very touching stories.

I had not known that about Bobby Kennedy.

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 09:08 PM

I thought McCain's response was great...

I don't know his heart so I don't know how much of this was politics and how much was him but he came accross as very believable...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Janie
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 09:14 PM

Yo, Beaubear. Been listening to NPR off and all all day today and reading yesterday and today. Hearing people talk about the man, not the icon. I had forgotten what a young man he was when he began his work (and how young he was when he died.) "All Things Considered" did a good 'collage' this afternoon that I think is well worth listening to. Rev. Joseph Lowery speaks about Dr. King toward the end of the piece to which I linked, and I thought his comments particularly insightful, and also moving.

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 10:00 PM

This is Beaubear with tears streaming down his face...

"I am a man"

"I want to do God's will"

"We, as a people, will get to the promised land"

I loved Rev. Lowery's description of folks looking aback at Dr, King as a "glorified social worker" as opposed to the "revoltionary" that Dr. King was...

(Janie, I know that seein' as both of us have been in social work that Rev. Lowrey's remarks were that more meaningfull)

I remember well the Poor People Campaign... It was the first time in my staunch Republican father's life where my dad got it right... I remember him orgainizing a blanket drive and taking his corporate owned Ford, loaded with blankets, down to "Tent City" in the middle of the night...

He would heve never done this had he not heard the words of Dr. King... He gre up referring to balck people as "niggers"... Yeah, my mom weaned him off "nigger" in the 50's but I don't think that my dad got it until he heard Dr. King... Thenm the light went off...

Sniff....

1968 was so tough for our family... My mom was working for a non-profit agency, JACS, Joint Action in Community Service, which helped Job Corps kids get into the mainstream... I became a volunteer... But more importantly, my corporate dad did as well... He hooked up with a kid, Joseph Washington, and one thing led to another and Joe came to livwe with us (oh, this is so painfull) and Joe was like my dad's new kidm 'cept that Joe was black....

Anyway, about 6 months later while I was in college my dad got a call... Joe had been killed in an automobile accident... My dad cried for days and would occasioally break down in tears over the last 30 years of his life over that loss...

Hey, I know I am rambling here but this unfortaunate story wouldn't have been possible had my very Republican father not taken the time to listen to the words of Dr, King...

So tonight, I tip my Natural Lito to both Dr. King, who had the courage to speak up and my dad who had the courage to hear what Dr, King was sayin'...

Godspeed to them both...

Tahnks, Janie, for the clip... I have bookmarked it...

B-bear...

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Peace
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 10:05 PM

Now you got me in tears, too.

Martin Luther King was a giant as an orator and leader. The man had incredible courage and he changed the USA for the better. Not too many folks can or will have that said about them.

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Janie
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 01:21 AM

Rev. Lowry's remarks about integration are what stood out most for me. As I recall, he said if they had it to do over again, they would define integration more carefully - that to many, integration came to mean all thing Black moving to all all things White, when in reality, integration meant emphatic movement from all things wrong to all things right.

That is a depth of vision, a moral philosophy, that came to extend well beyond the admittedly urgent and compelling but narrowly defined civil rights movement of the 60's. One day, Dr. King will be recognized as an icon, not of only the civil rights movement, but as an even larger and more significant icon for social justice.

That last speech was not a premonition. It was a realistic risk assessment based on the death threats and the knowledge he had of being stalked. He was a man of true moral courage in the face of the near certain knowledge that he would die if he continued in his work. No wonder those around him reported concern that he was near a breakdown.

Let him be remembered as a man, warts and all. But let him also be remembered as a true hero. His effect on the world, the effort and risk he took in doing the work he was called to do, and his genuine humility and commitment to serve in spite of knowing he would likely die because of it, deems him a worthy icon of social justice for all humans. And one function of icons is to inspire we humans to strive to approach, in some small measure, their courage.

I am no heroine. But I am willing to worship at the feet of a true hero. In doing so, perhaps I will be inspired or encouraged to make some small difference in the world, or engage in one or some small, seemingly insignificant acts of courage or justice that otherwise I might not. And in doing so, perhaps the world will be an iota of a better place.

That is what I tell myself and my son.

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: meself
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 01:38 AM

Yes - just hearing a few words of "I have a dream" or "I have been to the mountain" makes you want to do something good - after you have wiped away the tears ...

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: Tweed
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 08:25 AM

there is a dvd documentary out called "Respect Yourself", the story of Stax Records. Stax was started by a brother and sister (white folks) in an old movie theater in Memphis. Originally they were gonna record country and rockabilly there, but being located in a Black neighborhood they got turned on to the music that the people who lived around them liked to hear. There's a load of interviews with Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, Booker T, Mavis Staples who all said outside the theater that old bullshit racism went on but inside the theater/studio black and white was no longer an issue of any sort and they were all connected by that.

After Dr. King was killed at the motel, things changed inside the studio and even the music was not a unifying force anymore they said. The music changed and Isaac Hayes took over where Otis and Sam and Dave left off. I think that Soul music pretty much died along with Dr. King.

It's a great documentary and explains a lot of what was happening in Memphis at that time in our history.

Respect Yourself

Subject: RE: BS: 40 Years without Dr, KIng...
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 04:30 PM

Janie, you have put it so beautifully. You are a hero, too, as was Bobert's dad and all the others who work for social justice.

I listened to NPR off and on, too. I also received the following in an email:

*    *    *

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."

*    *    *

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

*    *    *
"The time is always right to do what is right."

Bobert, thanks for telling us about your dad and family. I've got more tears, today, reading my friends' words. Thank you all.