Posted on 01/20/2003 6:40:40 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Asking is akin to blasphemy? Actually it's worse than that. Posing the question might draw more serious condemnation than standing on the steps of the Vatican and screaming, "There is no G-d!!" Come to mention it, it is far more likely and acceptable for someone to critically examine the Pope, Jesus and the Almighty himself than Martin Luther King. Considering he was a Christian leader, as well as a civil rights leader, he certainly would think this odd.
Wondering aloud about such things makes me a bona fide racist in some eyes. Not at all surprising in a paradoxical, political environment where disagreeing with judging people based on skin color, euphemistically called "affirmative action", somehow makes one a racist. On the contrary, my respect for Mr. King is far purer than that alleged by people who have appropriated and distorted his legacy of race neutrality to justify exactly the opposite. The hysterical or, more likely, calculated reactions aside, these musings in no way should be construed as questioning the correctness of honoring the man. I believe him to be one of the most praiseworthy figures of the 20th century and indeed he should be recognized amongst the greatest Americans in our nation's history. But the question that I have is, at what point, and by what justification did he become THE most important figure in our history?
The fact that this is the position that King now occupies is not really arguable. Surely historians would have something to say about it, but if public remembrances and general reverence are at all indicators, and they're the only meaningful indicators, the debate has been settled. To see this, all we need do is open our eyes and uncover our ears. The observances of his birthday are all encompassing. Businesses, churches, the media and state, federal and local government institutions pause in unison and reflect. Public officials, led by the president, make obligatory statements and attend celebrations in his honor. And perhaps most important to the nation's attitudes, now and in years to come, the education system, private and public, makes a concerted effort to see to it that our youth understands who King was and what he has meant to this country. The same can be said about no one else in our history.
His birthday being a national holiday officially verifies Martin Luther King's historical preeminence. He is the one and only "American" deemed to be deserving of an official day of remembrance. Christopher Columbus still has a federal holiday bearing his name, but with the exception of it being a paid day off, it's largely ignored. As political correctness creeps ever forward and his image increasingly becomes that merely of the commander in the first way of European invaders to the "New World", the future of Columbus Day looks bleak. He was not an American in any event. Though his importance in shaping the modern world was immeasurable, his role in birth of The United States and in forming the democratic principles that guide us is nonexistent.
That's it.
Oh, we do have President's Day, but it is likewise remembered as a day off to the few people that get it, rather than anything used as an educational opportunity or deserving of ceremony. Actually the third Monday in February officially remains Washington's Birthday according to section 6103(a), title 5 of the United States Code. But since a proclamation by President Richard Nixon in 1971 it has, in effect, been a day to commemorate all past presidents. So we now have a day set aside to honor Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter along with Washington and Lincoln.
Martin Luther King as an image of courage and nobility in the face of hate should never be undervalued. He was steadfast in his nonviolence and eloquence, even as more radical factions in the civil rights movement began to dismiss him. King's assassination canonized him just as Mao-inspired fanatics, and other violent militants, threatened to take control. But he was not the only believer in nonviolence, and despite his charisma, the ultimate victory in the struggle for civil rights is conceivable without him.
It is far less likely that the Civil War would have come about or ended as it did without Abraham Lincoln. It was mainly due to his strength of will and moral convictions that the war evolved from a secession and state's rights conflict to one of a crusade against slavery. Strangely enough, it is many who benefited the most from Lincoln's leadership that have attempted to discard his attitudes and actions. But what can't be denied is that in a time of unimaginable bloodshed and with the Union faltering he rebuilt the moral underpinnings of the war effort. Though the Emancipation Proclamation freed not a single slave, making it changed the course of the nation. And it made Martin Luther King, as we know him, possible. King paid homage to this in the first lines of his "I have a dream speech",
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity."
Just as Lincoln made King possible, so too did George Washington make Lincoln possible. It is all but unimaginable that the War of Independence could have been won, the constitution could have been ratified, or that the presidency would have evolved as it has without him. And here again King's victories centuries later would not have come to pass. Washington's image has suffered greatly by a recent focus solely on the fact that he was a slaveholder. No one should be above scrutiny, but Washington was no lover of slavery and expressed his wish to have "a plan adopted for the abolition" of the institution.
No less a liberal outlet than PBS recognizes this:
"He possessed and displayed in his life courage, self-control, justice, judgment and an array of other virtues in such full harmony and to such a degree, and he surmounted such great challenges in so many circumstances of war and peace, that to see how he lived his life is to see much more vividly what it means to be a man. This is by no means to say that he was flawless any more than Babe Ruth was a perfect baseball player. It is merely to say that, if he had not lived, such greatness could hardly have been believed possible." And had Washington not lived the greatness of King could hardly have been believed possible.
I don't doubt for a moment that Martin Luther King is deserving of a place of honor in our history. But he is by no means the only or most deserving. There are others that could easily be named from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin and beyond whose shoulders King stood upon to accomplish what he did. And dismissing these men does a disservice to them, to this nation, to our children, and to King as well.
My child is in second grade, and is being told that MLK is the greatest man who ever lived in this country.She has no idea who Abe Lincoln was.She was taught that George Washington was greedy, and that all whites are greedy
Go figure
We had a wonderfull talk about how white and black and red people used to treat each other back in the old days, and how Lincoln and MLK just wanted us to treat each other based on how we acted, not by the color of our skins.
The ongoing pittfalls of trying to raise my child color-blind, as MLK rightly advocated,and avoiding the "white guilt" the current batch of race-baiting media whores and liberal history revisionists tout as truth, while teaching her to respect her Sioux ancestry is starting to make my head spin.
That said, I agree with the author. MLK was certainly an enigma and true folk hero of the 20th century, and not just to blacks.
And that said, I can with little effort point out many other great Americans who are equally or more deserving of a national holiday. Teddy Roosevelt springs to mind, as does George Washington Carver. Carver arguably did more for American blacks than MLK. Thoughts?
The biggest mark for him was that he did stick to non-violence, helping produced a relatively non-violent end to segregation. Something that today's protester's have no clue about -- for some reason they think that a broken window, lots of profanity, and even some nudity will persuade others of the rightness of their cause. The "I Have A Dream" March would look very different if it occurred today.
Can we call it even?
Not really. My child is being privately educated; I assume yours is? They are going to need servants someday. Servants need only a public education and to content themselves with trivia.
Really? What are you going to do about this?
What are we supposed to be celebrating, Washington or three-day weekends?
It won't matter.
By 2050, immigration will have created a new America, with a different view of what matters in history.
"Did you say something about my momma?"
"No, I didn't say something about your momma"
"So you're calling me a liar?"
"No, I'm not calling you a liar, honest!"
"I think you were talking about my momma"
"No, really! I don't even know your momma."
Etc.
If trends continue, in 2050 our grandkids might be thumping their heads against the floor at the local Madrass, trying to learn the Koran (in Spanish). MLK would be just another forgotten infidel.
So did Lincoln's. At least to some of us. Evidently not to the P.C. crowd, who mention Lincoln only in an attempt to make jim into some kind of Queer icon, through distortions and lies. Life in "Blue America" is really revolting. I don;t know how long my wife and I can hold out, before moving to the "Red Zone".
What I do every day.Tell her the truth, and make her feel comfortable in her own intelligence to the point that she does not have to be overtly combative with her teacher, but teach her the skills to know that when someone is feeding her less than the whole truth, she is not wrong if she questions what she is taught at school.
I teach her a healthy skepticism, and encourage her to use her own mind, and trust her own instincts.I teach her to talk to me, and other adults she knows to be honest.
It is hard to raise a child,but it is my job as her mother, to build the skills she will need to function in the real world, and to prolong her childhood as long as possible.
What do you do with your child?
At first it seemed strange to see black folks in places they had never been before. The "whites only" signs came off the fronts of businesses. Many small business owners sought ways around it. We even moved to a town where there was some loophole in the law that made it possible to keep blacks from living there. It was explained to me once, but I was quite young so I don't remeber exactly what it was.
All in all I knew it was a good thing that had happened. I had often had arguments with family members and friends about fairness and how it was just wrong that they should be treated as if they weren't as good as we were. As I said before, the street I had lived on as a child was both black and white, one end of the street was "colored" the other end white. I remember thinking it odd even as a small child if I was walking on the sidewalk and a "colored" man would walk by, usually on the way to the college, that he would step out into the street instead of walking on the sidewalk. When I asked my great-grandma why, the only answer I got was that I was a white girl and he was a colored man.
My great-grandma lived in the last house on the "white" part of the street and there was a fence and a field between her home and the first "colored' home. These were very nice people and they had a little girl just a little older than me. I was not a very socialble child but I really liked this little girl. I thought that she was so sweet and pretty. We would play for hours in our respective yards, but always with the fence between us. The only time we were allowed to go beyond the boundary of the fence and stand side by side was when the ice cream man came. Even as a very young child I had a keen sense of justice and I knew that there was something fundamentally flawed about that.
That said, I also recall something more and more as I get older that I heard repeatedly. Folks would say that no matter what they get now, it would never be enough. At the time it just sounded like sour grapes, but now I am beginning to understand it. At the time it was about having the same freedoms that we did; getting to choose what restaurants they wanted to go to or where they wanted to shop or where they wanted to sit on the bus. It was about having the same access to education and job opportunities and having the right to vote. It was about being able to play on the other side of the fence and walk on the sidewalk. It was about all men being created equal and all of us being made in the image of God. All those were good things. But the elders seemed to have a way of seeing into the future and sensing that there would be trouble ahead as a result. My daddy once said "they will never be happy with being equal, they will want to be "better".
It really isn't important that Martin Luther King was a sinner the same as the rest of us. What he facilitated was good thing. I believe that his dream was just what he said it was and he devoted his life and sacrificed his life for what he believed. But I have often wondered what he would think if he could see how his mission has been twisted. Being from a time when humility was still considered a virtue I wonder if he might not be ashamed of providing a backdrop for the shameless racebaiting that goes on under the auspices of "civil rights". I wonder what Dr. King would think about those of his people who have forgotten to be grateful to God for lifting them up out of the oppression of inequality and have instead cast the yoke of oppression on others. Would he approve of the displacement of all else in our history in the interest of evening the score? Would he think it was a great idea to remove George Washington's picture from our schools and replace it with one of Malcolm X? Would he teach his people that they have a right not to be offended but that it is okay to offend us in any way they want? I don't think so.
Should MLK have a place of honor in history? Absolutely! Should he have a street named after him in every big city in the country? I guess that's up to the people of those cities. Should every great white man in history be eclipsed by his shadow? Absolutely not! It is not about race so much as it is about respect. I will treat people with respect as long as I am treated with respect. If you think it is fine to offend me every time you open your mouth, then expect me to not really care if what I say or do offends you. If you are going to denigrate those whom I consider to be worthy of honor, do not expect me to honor your heroes. If you are going to treat me as if what I think and how I feel doesn't matter, then don't expect me to put much value on what you think or how you feel. Some of you have become that which Dr. King despised. Some of you, like me, can remember. Would you be masters or would you be brothers? You can't have it both ways.
Probably yet another reason that the power structure is looking for ways to put a stop to homeschooling. at least in some places.
Check out the African threads by Clive, and know that truth is not lost.
It is possible to raise a child colorblind, it is just harder to do so, than to pass on adult predjudices.I can bite my tongue before I say something stupid,the black mother of my childs schoolfriend can bite her tongue, and we adults can end the cycle.
Not the PC way, just the right way.We adults are the only ones who can stop passing the sins of our forefathers onto our children.
I think the world, or at least the USA would be a whole lot stronger if we adults bit our tongues more often around our own children, and stopped waiting for the "other parent" to shut up first.
Once the blacks and whites "get over it", perhaps there is a chance for the reds, browns and yellows to do so.I will smack Pat Buchanen for kicks, let a black mother smack Jesse Jackson.We will all feel better for it.LOL
Nah, they'd just posthumously convert him to Islam...or rewrite history yet again.
Excellent points!
December 15 is the Bill of Rights Day, and a group of us are working to make it a Day of National Recognition (holiday) similar to July 4th.
Another group of us are working to replace the income tax with a National Retail Sales Tax and abolish the IRS. April 15 would become a national holiday to commemorate (Lest We Forget!) FReeing the American people from the slavery of the income tax.
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” [Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800.]
We will never be a truly FRee people so long as we have the income tax and the IRS.
Click here to help us scrap the Code, scrap the IRS and abolish the VLWC!
We will never be a truly FRee people so long as we have the income tax and the IRS.
You can also click here to sign a petition in support of Fundamental Tax Replacement.
We will never be a truly FRee people so long as we have the income tax and the IRS.<p
The advantage to peanuts is that they put nitrogen back into the ground, and build it up for other crops. But it's not enough to tell people they ought to be growing such and such a commodity. You need to prove that it can be sold for a profit. And that was the reason for all his experiments with peanuts.
The man was a genius, but because even whitey can see that he was, there is no PC credit to be earned by acknowledging him as such. You only make PC brownie points by puffing womanizing false prophets as if they were honorable men.
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