T. E. "Bull" Connor and Osama bin Laden - the faces of evil (except for that bin Laden guy), in x42's opinion.
Posted on 10/29/2003 5:41:35 AM PST by mountaineer
Former President Bill Clinton compared Muslim terrorism on U.S. soil to the 1960 brutality of Birmingham police chief Bull Connor against civil rights marchers.
"These people who killed all of these Americans thought they had the whole story," Clinton told his audience as he accepted a national Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum with Memphis civil rights heroine Maxine Smith.
Clinton, sounding like a combination preacher and stand-up comedian, drew several standing ovations Tuesday in an acceptance speech in which he said the world is divided by people "who think our differences are more important than our similarities."
Clinton and Smith accepted the awards at a free public forum at Temple of Deliverance church, then were honored at a dinner reception in the Grand Ballroom of The Peabody that helped raise an estimated $400,000 for the civil rights museum.
Smith accepted her award first, describing it as a "thrilling thrilling moment. I’m up in the air." But she warned that the "struggle is far from over" and that education is a key to the future. "Education will determine the food you eat, the job you hold . . . the greatness you achieve."
As he followed her to the podium, Clinton said that as he watched an introductory video of Smith he couldn’t help but think as he saw her at age 21, "My God, you’re good looking."
As the audience laughed, Clinton was ready with a winking comeback related to his national apology after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. "I did it. I confess," said Clinton, inspiring a bigger round of laughter.
Bull Connor used fire hoses, dogs and clubs to attack marchers, defending his belief in a segregated America. His devotion to his own misguided beliefs was no different than terrorists who used airplanes to attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Bosnian Serbs who felt justified in exterminating Muslims in the name of "ethnic cleansing," tribal warfare in the Congo and terrorism in Northern Ireland, said Clinton.
The pool of possible award recipients is growing with the museum’s expanded emphasis not just on civil rights but on human rights and struggles against oppressive regimes. That is why a relatively short list of potential future nominees now includes Burmese rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi (now under house arrest).
Robertson said others whose names repeatedly come up in the nominating process include Tibet’s Dalai Lama, former Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Joseph Lowery, U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and and Clinton political intimate Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Apt summation.
T. E. "Bull" Connor and Osama bin Laden - the faces of evil (except for that bin Laden guy), in x42's opinion.
5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern!
The Rev. Al Sharpton, after reading that Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. plans to endorse Howard Dean for president, accused Mr. Dean of having an "anti-black agenda."
The New York Times reported yesterday that Mr. Jackson, an Illinois Democrat and son of the longtime black activist, soon will endorse the Democratic former governor of Vermont.
Mr. Sharpton, in a press release yesterday, seized on a 1995 interview in which Mr. Dean told CNN he thought affirmative action should be based on class, not race.
"Howard Dean's opposition to affirmative action, his current support for the death penalty and historic support of the [National Rifle Association´s] agenda amounts to an anti-black agenda that will not sell in communities of color in this country," Mr. Sharpton said.
"Any so-called African-American leader that would endorse Dean despite his anti-black record is mortgaging the future of our struggle for civil rights and social justice to back a candidate whose record on issues of critical importance to us is no better than that of George W. Bush."
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