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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPierce: The Version of Martin Luther King the White House Is Peddling Is a Crime Against History
...Watching SHS, functioning as the official voice of a president* who started his road to the White House by spreading lies and slander about the first African-American president, reading those words in her dead-eyed Weekend-Anchor-in-Fort-Smith voice was enough to make me feel radically non-non-violent, which really is not the proper way to feel on this solemn occasion.
At this point, I think its time to give White Martin a rest. In his death, the country that did so much to hinder his work in life fashioned up White Martin to make him useful in death. His work on economic inequality and against the atrocity that was the war in Vietnam was soft-pedalled into oblivion and replaced by an almost fanatical devotion to one line in an epic speech he gave in 1963, that one about the content of someones character. White Martin was a conciliatory figure, instead of the Martin Luther King, Jr. whose house was bombed, whose phones and hotel rooms were bugged, and who was violently driven out of Chicago when he tried to lead an open housing march. If Martin Luther King, Jr. was so damned conciliatory, why did someone shoot him in the head?...
The 50th anniversary of his murder comes at a propitious time. His true spirit is walking the streets again. It walks with the people who march against murder under color of law. His true spirit walks with the teachers who march for the means to teach children properly. He walks with the schoolchildren who demand that something be done about this countrys insane affection for its firearms. He walked with everyone who marched on the day after this ridiculous president* was born. He did not walk with Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the podium in this White House for the purposes of profaning his memory. Even in death, hes smarter than that....
His whole philosophy was based on breaking unjust laws. His whole career was made up of acts of lawbreaking. Thats who he was. That was his job. That was his mission, and that should be his memory. Non-violence is not the opposite of anger. It never has been. It is the repurposing of anger to constructive purpose, and that constructive purpose was the destruction of systems of oppression. If thats a profound contradiction then, dammit, this country came into being as a profound contradiction. "How is it," sniped Samuel Johnson, "that we hear the loudest yelps for liberties from the drivers of negroes?" We are a people of contradictions. So was Martin Luther King, Jr. We should make the most of that.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19686338/martin-luther-king-assassination-white-martin/
This one brought me to tears.
Cha
(297,323 posts)I shall kick it now and then read it.
malaise
(269,063 posts)Excellent
I've never heard that before, but it makes so much sense.
snip
The 50th anniversary of his murder comes at a propitious time. His true spirit is walking the streets again. It walks with the people who march against murder under color of law. His true spirit walks with the teachers who march for the means to teach children properly. He walks with the schoolchildren who demand that something be done about this countrys insane affection for its firearms. He walked with everyone who marched on the day after this ridiculous president* was born. He did not walk with Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the podium in this White House for the purposes of profaning his memory. Even in death, hes smarter than that.
sigh. tears.
mcar
(42,334 posts)Amen!
All colors. Every sex.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,356 posts)Lots of the 'solemn' news spots just mention his death; Pierce doesn't shy away from calling it the murder it was. IMO, that's as important as acknowledging his accomplishments because it shines light on the severity of the battle for those who didn't live through that time.
brer cat
(24,578 posts)Thanks for posting, mcar.
mcar
(42,334 posts)Thank you, brer cat!
Boomerproud
(7,955 posts)Demsrule86
(68,595 posts)counter and had to give up their seats on a bus for white people...back of the bus too...we elected a Black president in 2008. We have changed. It is horrible to have Trump but he can't stop progress and we will continue to move forward...
Glorfindel
(9,730 posts)I am proud to be a long-time subscriber to Esquire and hope to be able to support it for many years to come.
mcar
(42,334 posts)Gothmog
(145,339 posts)Proud liberal 80
(4,167 posts)They hated MLK Jr back then just like they hate BLM and Kapernick now.
Farmer-Rick
(10,192 posts)That doesn't look like him at all.
mountain grammy
(26,626 posts)Hekate
(90,715 posts)NOT "White Martin."
VOX
(22,976 posts)I reflexively thought of #45. Of course, his lawbreaking is entirely self-serving, and takes from others.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s lawbreaking, however, was morally just, as the laws themselves were immoral, unjust and overtly anti-American.
Please forgive me for thinking of these two men at the same time. One is a genuine hero and martyr, whose words will have deep significance forever. The other is like so much pet waste stuck to the bottom of one's shoe.
mcar
(42,334 posts)MLK got in "good trouble." Dotard, not so much.
VOX
(22,976 posts)Living, breathing history. He stood on the front lines and took some heavy blows, but he moved mountains.
"Good trouble," indeed!