John Conyers says Jack Kemp and Poppy Bush were the First Onboard MLK Holiday Movement!

[KoKo]

In a C-Span Forum today that focused on how MLK Holiday came into being...Congressman Conyers was one of the speakers who was there to give the background about how hard it was and how long it took to get Martin Luther King Day to be a National Holiday. He enumerated the struggles...the legislation and the "two steps forward..three steps back" of the legislation that really started in the STATES and then began to be pushed forward in the US House of Representatives.

He said that he had been encouraged by Jack Kemp and "the President's Father" to press forward because they would support the Holiday but that Conyers needed to keep going forward.

Conyers related a story that during the final Senate Hearing on making MLK a Holiday that the "hundreds of supporters congregated outside the Senate and gave incredibly inspiring speeches" that Conyers said were "better than the speeches" on the Senate floor. He praised those activists who came on buses and trains to stage their OWN SENATE HEARING OUTSIDE the ROOM! He thought this was a great expression of Activism in the final hours before the Senate vote.

I think it's interesting that two Repugs (according to John Conyers) were the FIRST to agree with him about MLK Holiday ...when Conyers says that they were trying to get some support.

[Blarch]

1. Fuck Conyers

I still feel like a chump for signing his impeachment petition.

[H2O Man]

2. Bush1 was

actually one of the better presidents as far as respecting traditional Native American rights. Curiously, so was Nixon. So I'm nor surprised by this.

[KoKo]

3. But they did have Dem Congresses backing them up....and Repugs worked

with Dems...back in those days when there were "Folks of Conscience" still there...

I do think Poppy had more conscience than his son...but he also could just have been "more pragmatic" in figuring out what would sell with the voters than this "Emperor" we have in there now. Jack Kemp...well..he's a good compromiser, too, in many ways. Although I'd never agree with Kemp's economic policies.. He was too close to Stever Forbes...for my liking...