King for a day: Some people don't want to honor the memory of Dr. King. Here's why you should

Jewsweek Magazine ^ | 1-19-03 | Marc Howard Wilson

[SJackson]

Jewsweek Magazine I believe that commemorating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King is the right thing. I believe that civic entities should signify the observance with an official holiday. I have always celebrated Dr. King’s life and have forever encouraged others to do so. I have hosted Dr. King’s widow in my pulpit and in my home, was privileged to have Daddy King preach in my synagogue, and I have chaired interfaith services in his memory in three cities.

I celebrate Dr. King not only out of empathy to the African American cause, but because Dr. King’s legacy is about universal ennoblement, the dignity of body, mind and spirit that is the God-granted gift of all Creation. Thus, the following column is not intended to preach to us liberals, but to the most conservative folks among us.

This is what I want to say to the most conservative elements of the national and local community:

If you think, however questionably, that African Americans are ignorant, uppity, intimidating, scrounging for a free lunch, hateful of white folk, immoral . . . then you could do a lot worse than Dr. King as the sine qua non African American role model. In fact, you should encourage that Dr. King’s legacy, and not someone else’s, should be the primary guiding light of African American self-determination. You should do everything in your power to acknowledge Dr. King as the yardstick by which African American parents should measure their children’s achievements and by which the quality of men and women who contend for leadership of the African American community should be judged.

After all, otherwise you might one day wind up with demands for holidays honoring far less illustrious role models, like Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, convicted murderer Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown), Snoop Dogg or P. Diddy. And, for God’s sake do not forget that Tupac Shakur and Notorious BIGG are already dead and just aching for martyrdom to consecrate their memories.

Make, as I have, an extensive study of Dr. King’s utilization of Biblical passages in his pronouncements. I have never seen a single passage twisted for venal, violent or self-enriching purposes. Can we say the same of Jesse Jackson?

Then, force yourself to read Dr. King’s I Have a Dream soliloquy. Do you see an appeal for African American dominance over white America? Do you see an exhortation to take anyone else’s piece of the American pie, or to “take” anything at all? Do you see anything about African Americans deserving a free lunch or shunning the societal mainstream to establish a belligerent separatist nation? Do you see anything but a call for equal opportunity and interracial harmony? Can we say the same of Louis Farrakhan or the sordid legacy of H. Rap Brown?

And, then also admit that Dr. King’s legacy is the very antithesis of the sloth, ignorance, crack, cop-killing, and “bitches and ‘ho’s” preached by the prophets of hop-hop and rap.

Anyone who tries to dictate to another person whom his/her role model should be is presumptuous. Yet, we have the right to editorialize and not capitulate to, “Hey, whoever turns you on.” White Americans have every reason to be reminded that Thomas Jefferson, even though he owned slaves and was quite a lady’s man, deserves our adulation over vipers like David Duke. And, African Americans have every reason to be exhorted that Dr. King, for all his frailties, deserves to be celebrated as a role model over Jesse Jackson and Snoop Dogg.

Personally, I see Dr. King’s legacy is an ideal to which all honorable people should aspire. But, to the most conservative among us, I would leave the following admonition:

A holiday to commemorate the legacy of Dr. King is the most desirable of all alternatives, if not for yourselves, then for African Americans. At least Dr. King tried to steer the ship of state out of disaster, rather than into it. If Dr. King is not exalted as a role model, which far less worthy model might be ordained to take his place? As far as I am concerned, we would be hard pressed to do better. If you are a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, at least admit that we could do a lot worse.

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[zarf]

Dr. King’s legacy is about universal ennoblement, the dignity of body, mind and spirit that is the God-granted gift of all Creation

What the author doesn't remind us is that these ideals are are enshrined in Americas founding documents. Americas cause is a universal one.

The greatness of Dr. King is that he recognized that and forced America to live up it's own ideals.

[canuck_conservative]

"Jewsweek"?

Hip title.

[Man of the Right]

MLK was a great man and generally a positive role model for African-Americans if one treads lightly on the plagarized Ph.D. dissertation and the adultery.

My beef is where he ranks in the pantheon. If the founder of the country (George Washington) and the remaker of the country (Abraham Lincoln) don't rate a holiday collectively, let alone individually, how does King rate? Does Cinque de Mayo became a federal holiday when Hispanics outnumber blacks later this decade? Or does Pearl Harbor Day (honoring the brave Japanese airmen) when Asiatics outnumber both?

My personal opinion is that observance of King Day will continue to decline until it is eliminated as a Federal holiday. On merit, King day is an ethnic holiday comparable to Columbus Day in importance.

Jan. 20 means no mail delivery and the banks are closed. Just about every one else works.

[Diddle E. Squat]

On merit, King day is an ethnic holiday comparable to Columbus Day in importance.

Which Civil War was it where we fought in part to free the Italian slaves?

[Astronaut]

As a govt employee, I'm happy to have the day off. ;) However, there are men in our history who made far greater contributions than King. Where is the federal holiday for them? Admiral Chester Nimitz Day? Neil Armstrong Day? I believe that the King holiday was nothing more than political pandering to radical blacks who demanded a symbolic payoff.

[tet68]

Which Civil War was it where we fought in part to free the Italian slaves?


Didn't they cover that in public school?

Just how long have you been living here in Vespucciland?

[copycat]

Dr. King laid the ideal out for all to see...that a man should be judged NOT by the color of his skin. This statement of the moral truth cannot be refuted and is apparent to those of every political stripe.

[Old Professer]

The man was a philanderer, a plagiarist, a rabble-rouser and a saint in less-than-equal parts; from his mouth pearly platitudes poured forth, in his wake riots ravaged entire communities and caused great consternation; surely he deserves to be remembered.

[OldBlondBabe]

"Jan. 20 means no mail delivery and the banks are closed. Just about every one else works."

Not teachers. Schools are closed, which is dumb. If MLK is so important to set aside a day to honor him, then students should spend the day learning about him.

[Cicero]

I agree with you. America has many, many heroes. It wouldn't be hard to come up with a list of 365 of them who are just as deserving of a holiday as MLK.

Traditionally, the top hero has been George Washington, for founding the country, and second to him (pace southern feelings) Abraham Lincoln, for preserving it.

How come we no longer observe Washington's birthday or Lincoln's birthday, but we have a national holiday to remember MLK? It's nothing against MLK to suggest that he is not America's number one national hero.

The Democrats introduced MLK Day to embarrass the Republicans and cement the black vote. At the same time they managed to get rid of Lincoln's birthday because he was a symbol of the part Republicans played in emancipating the blacks. Good politics, but typically divisive. Now, if you complain, you sound like the Grinch, and that's just what the Democrats wanted.

[ClearCase_guy]

This statement of the moral truth cannot be refuted and is apparent to those of every political stripe.

What planet are you on? It IS a moral truth which cannot be refuted, yet people of the political stripe known as "leftist" think that judging people by the color of their skin is the only way to go. To them, King's moral truth is not apparent at all.

[Founding Father]

How exactly does one conclude that a "reverend" who is an adulteror, a Phd. who obtained his doctorate by plagarizing his thesis paper and a known communist sympathizer is a great man.

This is a P. C. holiday, pure and simple. It does serve a purpose though--all those fed bureaucrats that spend their working days thinking up new ways to screw the country, have the day off.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Platitudes? Actually, in the late 1950s, he could be quite thoughful and perceptive....though he went off the deep end in the 1960s:

"During the Christmas holidays of 1949 I decided to spend my spare time reading Karl Marx to try to understand the appeal of communism for many people. For the first time I carefully scrutinized *Das Kapital* and *The Communist Manifesto.* I also read some interpretive works on the thinking of Marx and Lenin. In reading such Communist writings I drew certain conclusions that have remained with me as convictions to this day. First, I rejected their materialistic interpretation of history. Communism, avowedly secularistic and materialistic, has no place for God. This I could never accept, for as a Christian, I believe that there is a creative personal power in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality-a power that cannot be explained in materialistic terms. History is ultimately guided by spirit, not matter. Second, I strongly disagreed with communism's ethical relativism. Since for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything-force, violence murder, lying-is a justifiable means to the 'millennial' end. This type of relativism was abhorrent to me.

Constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means, because in the final analysis the end is pre-existent in the means. Third, I opposed communism's political totalitarianism. In communism, the individual ends up in subjection to the state. True, the Marxists would argue that the state is an 'interim' reality which is to be eliminated when the classless society emerges; but the state is the end while it lasts, and man is only a means to that end. And if man's so-called rights and liberties stand in the way of that end, they are simply swept aside. His liberties of expression, his freedom to vote, his freedom to listen to what news he likes or to choose his books are all restricted. Man becomes hardly more, in communism, than a depersonalized cog in the turning wheel of the state.

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself."

Martin Luther King Jr., *Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story* (New York: Harper and Row, 1957), 92-93

[per loin]

We should judge Michael King (his real name) by his character. He was a thief, both through his extensive plagerism and his embezelling to fund his drinking and whoring. He was a liar about his communist associations and backers. He was a man who physically beat up women, as attested by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. On the other hand, he gave good speaking performances, but Snoop Dawg also gives good performances.

[mhking]

He was human. He had his failings. He had the balls to stand up to those who would have rather have kept blacks "on the plantation". Most of those whom King opposed were Democrats. Of course, there are many on the left who would have you believe otherwise.

If there was no MLK, the civil rights movement in general and the 1960's in particular, would not only have been much more bloody, but perhaps may have left blacks truly as subjugated as the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world would have you believe blacks are.

You don't like the man? That's your business. But sorry. The race baiting won't wash here.

[mhking]

Race-baiting posts alert!

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[Mr. Jeeves]

MLK may look like a saint next to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, but objectively he was a deeply flawed man, his contributions of middling importance in American history compared with men such as Washington and Reagan.

[Restorer]

people of the political stripe known as "leftist" think that judging people by the color of their skin is the only way to go.

As do a fortunately much smaller group of those who claim to be conservative.