Posted on 01/11/2006 10:44:34 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
Awww...you can find almost any pablum from Ghandi. His words were effective opportunism and he took multiple (and often apparently contradictory) sides on most subjects.
Thanks for the reminder. I took a class at St. Mary's in SA back in the eighties taught by her husband, but she did make an appearance or two to impart her wisdom.
Whereas some folks overcome their socialist utopian ideals when confronted with the real world, these two only seemed to progress further on that road. (usually promoting the ideas with other people's money, IIRC, rather than as self sustaining ventures).
Odd ducks find their niche bump!
I sent this email to this jackass:
I would just like to bring the following to your attention for your consideration. The US military enables the freedom to protest injustice. The US Armed Forces has bought freedom to more people (both here and overseas) than ANY other military force in the history of mankind, including the US Army's Military Police, with their M- 60 Machine guns mounted on their jeeps and their bayoneted M-14 rifles, deployed in Alabama during the civil rights marcher's return to Selma Bridge in the mid 1960's. Just look at photos from that era and you will see SOLDIERS making that possible while Dr. King is marching by.
Your smug, facile and historically ignorant bleatings portray a profound lack of gratitude for the incredible sacrifice and heroism of those who have protected and continue to protect you and our nation.
Excellent!
There is much to admire about Dr. King. It would not be inaccurate to say that he may have been the "indispensable man" of the civil rights movement. But ANY historical figure MUST be subjected to the sort of legitimate analysis that is critical to establishing context and perspective. For instance, it is my opinion that the greatest political philosophers of liberty in the history of mankind were those men that this nation was blessed to have at its inception, the Founding Fathers. Notwithstanding this opinion, I am constantly being exhorted by leftist deconstructionists to never forget that many of them were slaveowners, sexist, and slaughterers of innocent Indians. None of this changes the totality of my opinion of them in the great good they accomplished by founding this nation.
I simply say that a similar yardstick should be applied to Martin Luther King in assesing the impact that his legacy has on the modern-day civil rights movement.
A new factor has been introduced into modern-day discourse and that is what has become the intellectual scouge of our time, political correctness. This leftist attempt to stifle honest intellectual inquiry does serve to obsfucate and shield those counterproductive aspects of Martin Luther King's legacy and so prevent us from seeing what we need to retain and to reject of it, so that we might move forward to a full realization of the blessings of liberty that this great nation offers for all of its citizens.
The fact is that MLK WAS a socialist and that goes to the heart of what went wrong with the civil rights establishment after the legal battles against codified discrimination were won.
I am a black man who has been getting callouses on my dome from butting heads with those in my community who refuse to relinquish big government statist solutions for the problems plaguing the black community in favor of free market solutions that are far more appropriate today. These forces frequently cite Dr. King and use his exhortations to government to lead the way. They specifically cite his socialist outlook as justification for their continuance.
MLK was a man of enormous charisma and courage and certainly a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. There is much about him that I admire. An assesment of his life could creditably yield the adjective of great. Despite that, he does not deserve to be the ONLY American with his own holiday named after him. That honor should be reserved for only one person in American history, the greatest of all Americans, George Washington. More so than any other SINGLE figure in our history, he was the "indispensable man." Without his courage, acumen,honor, and integrity, the US would simply not exist, and if it did, it probably would have been as a monarchy and certainly not as a constitutional republic.
MLK's birthday was a sop to PC and a reflection of the DemocRAT Congress that voted it. The depth of MLK's association with the most anti-freedom and murderous ideology (Communism)of our time will prove to very embarrassing when it is fully revealed. Additionally, MLK's legacy to the modern day civil rights movement is a socialist bequeathment, that of looking to big government solutions for many of the behavioral problems in today's black community. MLK continues to cast a long shadow over most of the modern day civil rights establishment and black politicians who largely reject free market, educationally based solutions to the unique problems plaguing the black community.
So why would including our nation's bodyguards in this event contradict his legacy?
-Eric
Is there any Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, Street, Avenue, etc. that is safe to walk on during any hour of the day?Chris Rock has said in his performances that there is not, and has commented on the irony.
-Eric
BTW DMZ: Great post! (#25)
Sparks fly over MLK march flyover
A bitter dispute over the planned military flyover at Monday's Martin Luther King march has split peace activists, longtime march supporters and East Side community members, and could result in a smaller turnout for what has been the nation's largest MLK march.
Some opponents of the flyover are calling for a boycott of the march, while others plan to attend with bandanas over their mouths and black and yellow ribbons around their arms in a show of protest.
Two fighter jets from the 99th Flying Training Squadron at Randolph AFB will zoom over Pittman-Sullivan Park at noon at the end of the nearly three-mile march from Martin Luther King Drive to Iowa Street.
While some say the flyover will provide a patriotic flair to the march during a time of war, others say it will represent support for the war — something King would not approve of.
The Rev. Herman Price, chairman of the city's MLK Commission, said the flyover was meant to honor King, and he is dismayed by the divisiveness it has caused.
"It all depends on how you look at it," Price said Thursday. "They say the planes represent war and bombs and death, but at the same time those planes can also represent our freedom and peace."
But City Councilwoman Patti Radle, who objected to the flyover in a letter to the editor in Wednesday's Express-News, doesn't see it that way.
"War is a different system working for peace. Martin Luther King was not part of that system," she said.
City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil, whose district includes the march route, contented the flyover is exactly what King would have wanted.
"I think that the military plays too significant of a role in our community for us to ignore them and not include them in this march," she said. "They are the reason why we have peace, and this is MLK's peace march."
The dispute has been brewing since November, when someone brought up the idea for a flyover at an MLK Commission meeting. Commissioners voted for a motion to add the flyover, though it's unclear whether the issue was placed on the agenda.
As word of the flyover spread throughout the community, some peace activists became upset and banded together through e-mails and meetings.
Many opponents of the flyover, including Radle, said they might skip the event.
A flier distributed at City Hall on Thursday urged people to boycott the march.
"San Antonio's MLK march, one of the largest in the nation, is absolutely the wrong event for a military flyover," P.C. McKinnon wrote in an e-mail to the Express-News. "Would it have been appropriate to have a flyover at Dr. King's funeral? I think not."
McKinnon said he won't take his family to the march.
Tommy Calvert Jr., an East Side activist, said when he tried to rescind the flyover decision at an MLK commission meeting Monday, Price would not allow it.
"I think I'm going to wear a gag bandana in my mouth since I was not allowed to call a vote on the floor in solidarity with the dozens of people who were there to overturn the vote," Calvert said. "If you're going to honor Dr. King, you have to honor the nonviolent point. It's fundamental."
He added that no one in the peace movement wants to keep the military from marching.
"But a fighter jet is not a soldier," he said. "Dr. King said that you lay down your arms at the table of brotherhood. A fighter jet is an arm."
Jane Tuck, who attended the meeting with Calvert, said she told the group the flyover would be antithetical to the beliefs of King and his work.
Others joined in, and the meeting soon turned sour.
"It got to be a very ugly meeting," said Tuck, a member of a pacifist organization.
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