Posted on 01/18/2003 6:18:12 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
It's too bad that he didn't remain this ardent later on in his life. But that's neither here nor there.
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
As others have said here, King took great personal risks to fight state-imposed segregation in Montgomery and he won through tried and true tactics such as boycotts! He even tried to organize a competing integrated bus company but was slamed down by the authorities for violating municipal franchise law. Can anyone here claim to have taken similar risks to deal a blow against state power?
I guess you did not read the article that I linked in my previous post. There was nothing in it that was disparaging or critical of Dr. King, only the debunking of a letter allegedly written by him which is circulated around the Internet at this time of year, a bogus letter which has a dubious provenance. The article did not say that Dr. King was an anti-Semite or that he did not share some of the sentiments expressed in the letter, only that he was not the author.
Of course not! That's one of the things I hate about cyberspace.
Out of all the grand words and relentless pontifications, when the rubber meets the road with these types, you would witness consternation followed by crinkling of your nose.
Your nose would do that because you'd be smelling the foul odor of their defecation in their pants.
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
After being sent to article after article that does nothing but continually disparage blacks in general and MLK in particular - especially by those who purport themselves to be "conservatives" - I'll admit that I didn't read the article at the link you sent me.
I'm simply tired of it. Most of these folks (i.e., those who break their collective necks to talk about King's failings, neglecting for a moment that he was human after all), would much rather see me leave FR. It makes it far easier to be able to speak of "blacks" as this nefarious group of folks who deserve nothing but disdain and hatred.
Well, I'm proud to be an American, I'm proud to be conservative, and damnit, I'm proud of who I am. I'll be damned if someone is going to tell me that I shouldn't.
Damn straight. And this is backed up by steel in the hour of chaos if necessary.
My American flag and my person don't run. The two are eternally locked together. And I'm sure yours don't run either.
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
That begs the question of whether he was needed or not. Also, "someone like King", would be Jesse Jackson or many other African American leaders then and now.
In my opinion, government policy and social change was inevitable with the change in society that had occured for many reasons after WWII and the rise of Liberalism. King, and others, focused these changes in such a way as to lead to the race consciousness that now pertains in America.
Liberalism focused this change in attitudes to give us "civil rights" laws which were largely opposed by the Right back then because they were seen as distructive of our federalistic system. Federalism and state's rights, local rights, are now essentially dead because of the liberal Warren Court which was the handmaided to this focus, and no conservatives supported that Court in it's efforts. How else would a rationale for overturning state laws against abortion be explained?
One of the curses of old age is that we live long enough to see our predictions proven correct. Another is to see the Orwellian "rewrite" of history occur before our very eyes.
Regards.
We should turn this imbalance into an opportunity.
As the original article points out, Ronald Reagan went along with the MLK holiday, realizing that MLK has become a myth in our culture.
We should co-op the MLK myth and turn MLK into a “conservative” icon, as many conservatives have already done. After all, politics is a blood sport.
You might be old, tired and jaded, but I’m young, eager, and ready.
I have at least 40 years of fight left on me, and I predict that before I meet my Maker, I will the balance between federal and state/local powers back to a healthy medium.
You wish. If America would have treated all of its citizens equally under the law, King would not have been needed. But America did not do that.
In my opinion, government policy and social change was inevitable with the change in society that had occured for many reasons after WWII and the rise of Liberalism. King, and others, focused these changes in such a way as to lead to the race consciousness that now pertains in America.
That is entirely unacceptable. The time to have ended the blatant hypocrisy was yesterday, not tomorrow.
America and her hypocrisy at the time opened the door to the Left. This must be pointed out, even though I do not appreciate the hijacking of the movement (which was indeed noble) to suit an extremist agenda.
Birth of Tha SYNDICATE, the philosophical heir to William Lloyd Garrison.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.
I'm not sure that you will be able to do that. The "leveling" thrust of the holiday and the man belong to the "Left". I haven't got the optimism on this that you have. On must be cautious so as not to be "hoist on your own petard". That's not to say that we must spend a lot of time and effort demythologizing King.
Regards.
No nation treats all of its citizens equally. Some are always "more equal than others". The conservative position has been, and was at the time, that faults should be corrected according to the institutions based on our Constitution which gave states and localities some powers. Since those faults were mainly state or local, some of them, had to be dealt with at that level. Liberalism has no patience with that argument, it imposed solutions on a national level. The precedents set are with us today for better or worse.
Another point, King in the 30's and 40's would not have had the recognition that he did in the late 50's and 60's. That is due to the social and governmental changes that I alluded to in my first post. It is arguable that King had some effect on the rapidity of change but I believe he role was marginal at best. That's why I question that he was "needed".
Regards.
For my generation, MLK means an American who fought segregation and racism.
Now that we have moved away from those evils, we do not have to treat people differently because of the color of their skin.
The good news is that blacks are not as stupid as many liberals and some conservatives think. Every time I hear, “If we don’t have affirmative action [quotas], then we will not have diversity [enough blacks or hispanics],” I want to scream.
As a part time gig, I train high schoolers to raise their SAT scores. Every year, I have black students who improve dramatically their SAT scores, and they get into the university of their choice by merit.
If we improve the public education system, whether through school choice or other means, we will have sufficient representation from all the races at the universities and high-paying jobs.
Most capitalists want the best-qualified people for their jobs, and they are selfish enough to put aside lingering racial or ethnic prejudices.
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