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CreativeDominant -> RE: First to throw his hat in the ring (4/26/2015 8:19:58 PM)
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ORIGINAL: slvemike4u
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ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr
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ORIGINAL: CreativeDominant
Don't you know, Michael? If Martin Luther King were alive today, his new statement would be that you should judge a GROUP on the content of the character of their BEST individual (him). Much more inclusive that way and you can put away that niggling suspicion that an individual may be different from someone else in his group.
Normally, I would continue along in the spirit of snarky camaraderie. I will get to that, eventually, but I want to be serious, first.
MLK is ("was", since he's no longer with us?) one of my heroes. His outlook and quiet, non-aggressive power still stand as an absolute testament to the man. He was exactly what this country needed. He advocated justice; as opposed to a counter-balance of the status quo.
In a different time/reality, MLK could have easily found himself to be president and he probably would have done a wonderful job.
The problem is with people who have a certain caché of credibility, having marched with him and been arrested with him. They have bastardized MLK's message. I won't go so far as to say that their reasons are nefarious, but they certainly aren't honorable, in one way or another. These people (and I'm referencing Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte and their ilk) have no way of knowing what MLK might be thinking, today. The fact that he was a man that did think and wasn't swayed by other more violent and militant personalities hints at the idea that these modern idiots have it wrong.
It doesn't matter "Why?" What matters is the bastardization itself. Luckily for us, we have King's own words - in books, on film, and on audio - with which to examine his message.
It's apropos and interesting to me, personally, that you chose to paraphrase what most consider to be his greatest sermon/speech. The part which you referenced:
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I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Not only damns racism but it speaks to an intense sense of justice. It also points out the bastardization about which I have written.
That sentence tells us that he finds (as should we all) racism to be repugnant. What's inferred by that sentence is that if we are leaving skin color out of the equation, it's okay to find the character of a man to be lacking. The modern-day PPLs forget this. It's why someone could investigate the voting records and written words of a political candidate and find that candidate to hold a socialist political stance but still be dismissed as a "racist" because the socialist politician happens to have darker skin.
The fact that someone looks a certain way should never be a reason to demonize them but neither should it be a reason to give them transactional immunity/absolution. It contrasts, nakedly, with the modern day message of: If you hold a man accountable for his actions and that man happens to have darker skin, you're a racist.
There's another part of that same speech that speaks to me, also:
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I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
Once again, we see an intense sense of justice. We see a true statement on equality which no human being with two brain cells to rub together could argue against.
Unfortunately, the same rousers of rabble whom I mentioned, earlier (Jackson et al.) seem to only have one brain cell and we see their hatred, injustice ("Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice, everywhere" sound familiar to anyone?) and vitriol regurgitated here, on a daily basis.
The neo-liberal ... the new Pablum©-Puker doesn't seem to want equality; based upon their own words. They seem to want "pay-back" or vengeance. In my heart of hearts, I just can't bring myself to imagine one of my personal heroes changing the content of his character to that degree.
Michael
Or,conversely these same people are inpatient that the dream you love so much,the ideals you so eloquently attach yourself to,have not fucking been met.
Not yet,not even close....a whole generation of young black men are still entwined in some way or other witjh the nations criminal justice system . Perhaps because they're breaking the law?
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Economically the black man is STILL little better than a second class citizen. Perhaps because many black people...though certainly not all (the Reverend Jackson, the Reverend Sharpton, Thomas Sowell, Dr. Carter)...are content to remain mired in the welfare system?
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Towns across america,despite being predominately black,are still policed and legislated by almost exclusive bodies of white folks(Ferguson anyone ?) Is there any of these towns that you can bring a solid, provable case of black people being kept from running for office? Where black police officers have applied for jobs and been turned away?
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