I agree with JV. Why bring Bush into this day designed to remember Dr. King? Honestly, I wish Rimster hadn't used "happy" in the thread title. I'm not happy on this day. It reminds me of another great American murdered before being able to live his/her life to it's potential. Yes, we should celebrate what he did. Truly an amazing man. Like us all, he had his flaws, but he was a man of great courage and a wonderful vision of the future. America was left a far better place for his presence. Why do we lose so many of our greatest visionaries before their time? That troubles me. D&D. Dr. King... we will not forget.
When I hear my 9 yo talk about "Martin" and see her start to grasp the complexities of her country, it makes me happy. When I see a guy like Obama being considered a serious contender for the Presidency, it makes me happy. When I think about how far we have come just in my lifetime, it makes me happy. When I think about peace and nonviolence and how our nation had to acknowledge the fact that all men are created equal, it makes me happy and gives me hope. I prefer to be happy today, even though I fear it will always be a bittersweet day due to the reasons Deck mentioned and many others, including the fact that I felt a thread honoring this great American and the movement he inspired would be more at home in D&D.
It's hard for me to get into this holiday...WHEN I HAVE TO WORK!!! This needs to be a full holiday for private and public sectors!!! MLK was about equality for all. An inequal holiday isn't sending his message.
Just thought I'd pass along that on varying radio stations today "satellite and terrestrial" I constantly heard variations of the phrase "We remember MLK" or "To honor MLK" followed by songs such as: Ms. New Booty The Whisper Song I Know You See It and others. Would it be so hard to record someone saying something inspirational or play something else? The guy was a leader in the civil rights movement and I thought it was pretty tacky to hear: "____ celebrates and honors the life of Dr. MLK, Jr. ... bootybootybootybooty rockin' everywhere..."
Not in the Heartland, but probably because the schools up here already take Columbus Day and President's Day off, unlike the South. Oh, and the parade would have like, three people in it.
Just as tacky to associate a Mid 50s to late 60s Social Protester with Sexually Explicit musicians 40 years later, because they have the same skin color. For the station to even acknowledge MLK Day is, in all honesty, a promotional courtesy, which the listeners aren't even really tuning in to hear (as opposed to the music).
Italian-American heritage, navigational innovation and geographic discovery, the first stepping-stone to the formation of the United States of America. Lots of bloodshed and oppression, to be sure, but too monumental an event - two halves of the world literally discovering each other, on a large scale, for the first time in human history - to be ignored.
How about MLK in Austin? For the three or four seconds I was enrolled at UT, it didn't seem that bad. I think that was where the closest Micky D's and Pizza Hut were to campus; but that was ten years ago, so I can't remember too well.
non-violence. just wanted to share something. heard a sermon the other on the internet about the part of the sermon on the mount where Jesus says, in Matthew 5:38-41, if you're keeping score at home: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." We construe this to mean Jesus is asking us to be so pacifist that we're pushovers, many times. But that's not the intent at all. Remember that the audience he was speaking to were Jews who were treated like crap under the rule of the Romans on their own turf. In Hebrew culture, your right hand was your "action" hand. It was seen as clean..the left hand was seen as unclean. You used it to wipe your butt, for instance. So the person slapping you does so with his right hand in a back-handed fashion. And that slap is an indication that you're subservient. So Jesus says, "fine..take that...but turn to him your left cheek now. now, for him to strike your left side with his right hand, he would need to hit you. like a man. this forces the person to see you different...because the person who thinks you're his slave can't dismissively slap you any longer...but has to hit you like an equal. In Hebrew culture of that day, if someone took your tunic and your cloak...you were left absolutely naked. But, in Hebrew culture, the shame of nakedness wasn't for the naked person...but rather for the person who views the naked person. so the shame would be on the person standing there in front of you whom you give your tunic and cloak to. In that day, Roman soldiers could, under the law, command you to carry something for them about a mile. Beyond that, you're free to go. So telling the person who commands you to walk with them a mile, "no, i'll walk with you 2 miles," takes away the subservient nature of the relationship. It transforms it. Christianity was often called the Third Way in its early years. Because there was always seen 2 ways...fight or flight. Fight back or take this oppression. What Christ is teaching here is a third way. A different way. A way that redeems the situation. That doesn't have you cowering to oppression, but rather has you insisting to be treated with respect you deserve....all without throwing a punch or inflicting any physical pain on the other. Most importantly, it gives the person in the master role the chance to do the right thing...a chance to see you as an equal and do the right thing. Redeeming. This is what MLK preached AND LIVED (along with many others whose names we have forgotten.) They insisted on being treated as equals in a society that refused to recognize them as such. And they did so in a peaceful way, that forced the very society they lived in to completely re-think their own place in the relationship. Their own morality in that relationship. That's insanely beautiful to me. Here's the sermon, if anyone is interested http://www.mhbcmi.org/listen/listen.php?method=3&teaching=121706
No. I compared "no one to nobody." I cited an inconsistency- praise one "lawbreaker" while condemning another. Go. I have great resepect for MLK. History will judge GWB not us monkeys here....
And if he had praised GWB as well as MLK, I'm sure you would not have said anything. When you put two people in the same sentence, you're comparing because you're telling him that he needs to treat GWB the same way he treats MLK. How is that not comparing?
My comment was on one dimension-- lawbreaking. I find it just hilarious that FB and others will rail against GWB's lawlessness yet praise and salute MLK's own lawlessness-- which I understand and admire. There's obviously an agenda in play here and I'm just pointing it up. BTW, is GWB actually breaking the law?
While I still think it is a really dumb holiday, you make some good points I guess. However, as a nit pick, Columbus was not the first european to "discover" the americas.
Personally, I don't think GWB is breaking the law. I do feel he's pushing the envelope in terms of Presidential power, but FDR did the same during WWII (yes I'm comparing FDR to GWB even though FDR was mroe of a liberal =P). Breaking a law such as "whites only" is far different than breaking a law like a citizen's right to privacy, which I believe is what the poster was referring to.
You obviously misunderstood. I don't praise breaking the law for the sake of breaking the law. I never praise it when it is done by someone in power to seize more power. I don't praise the guy who robs a bank down the street, or the local liquor store. I don't praise people who engage in fraud or identity theft. I praised MLK for having the courage to do it and accept it's consequences. I praise MLK for breaking laws that were unjust. These are the differences. MLK broke laws that oppressed men, and in doing so he did it openly, and didn't seek to avoid the consequences. GWB breaks laws or least the constitution in an effort to seize more power for the himself and others who are already in power. The laws or constitutional amendments that Bush breaks aren't unjust to start with. Bush does not do it in the open, and does no accept its consequences, nor does he hold others in his employ accountable when they do the same. You are very wrong if you think I praise MLK for doing the same thing I criticize Bush for.
You are being a jerk in a thread that should have no room for such things. Admiring King's civil disobedience of racial discrimination has nothing to do with the potential/supposed/actual law breaking of ANY president. That would be like me getting on Max for saying he admired Dr King when he has countless times complained about Clinton breaking the law ("he lied under oath!!!"). I will not because that is stupid and completely separate. A president cannot practice civil disobedience because he is the president. Deckard - I think you are confusing the issue here. MLK day is about King's birthday, not his death. It is the remembrance of a happy day, his birth, and not of his death. Sure, it was tragic and harmful that he was murdered, but would you rather he have not been born? I have no problem with wishing someone a "happy" MLK day, despite the horror of what he indirectly represents due to racism, segregation, and murder.
