Dr. King and President Obama
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
-Martin Luther King
Here we are at the beginning the second term of what is undoubtedly a historical administration. Will the next four years be as tumultuous as the last four? That all depends upon the knuckleheads on the far right. They really need to deal with some hard-core facts: We have an African American president. He was elected fairly and squarely. His reelection proves for all time and eternity that his ascendancy to the Executive Mansion is not some sort of historical fluke. This is no longer a world run by - and for - white male protestants. All the people have made an investment in America. This fact of life will become more and more clear to them in the next decade. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and our hands folded that they might eventually come to terms with this new - inevitable and undeniable - fact of life.Maybe they'll finally get with the program but I kinda doubt it. Acting and talking crazy is what these people do best and it would be unrealistic (maybe even unfair) to expect them to alter an act that plays so well in the sticks. And besides, people like Rush Limbaugh, Dick Morris, Sean Hannaty and Ann Coulter are making a fortune appealing to the very worst angels of the American nature. I suspect the years between 2013 and 2017 will bring us more of the same. That's okay by me. It's quite an amusing show.
If only Martin Luther King could have lived to see this day. I'm fairly certain he'd be walking on air - with the help of a cane of course. He would, after all, be eighty-four now.
Here's something to think about:
When Barack Obama was elected president in November of 2008 I was quite beside myself. I remember telling everyone who would listen (and a small handful who wouldn't) "The first African American president in American history? This is a freakin' milestone, baby!"
But as the weeks leading up to his inauguration wore on, my excitement slowly dissipated. By Inauguration Day 2009 it was gone. That's when it hit me:
"What's President Obama going to be doing for the next eight years?" I asked out loud, "The same thing that black people in this country have been doing for the last four centuries: Cleaning up the mess left behind by lazy and ignorant white people! WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL???"
Happy Dr. King Day, everybody!
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
SUGGESTED READING
Let the Trumpet Sound
by Stephen B. Oates
a biography of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.
SUGGESTED READING
Let the Trumpet Sound
by Stephen B. Oates
a biography of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.
posted by Tom Degan @ 8:54 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
I wonder what MLK would think of Obama if he were alive today. ML was against war as much as he was for civil rights. He as certainly against torture, but 21 out of 22 forms of torture are still being practiced by the US as we speak. I do not think ML would see Obama much differently than Nixon in many ways. It is sorta like "I have a dream" vs I have a drone.
Good point, James. We should never gloss over the fact that Dr. King would never have supported any of these wars.
Keep 'em coming - your thoughts, I mean - not the wars.
"What's President Obama going to be doing for the next eight years?" I asked out loud, "The same thing that black people in this country have been doing for the last four centuries: Cleaning up the mess left behind by lazy and ignorant white people! WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL???"
What is that supposed to mean?
Tom,
MLK was pro life if you are to believe his daughter. Could the Presidents children say the same about him?
Tom, it would be nice if hostilities could be put aside and our elected representatives actually started working for the good of the country rather than simply to win re-election, remain in office as long as possible, and thwart everything that President Obama tries to do but I really doubt that it will happen. I don't see that the next four years will be any less hate filled than the first four.
You are correct Mr Moore, I am sick and tired of the hate of the past for years. Was is the left being so hateful?
MLK embraced the positions on homosexuality as the Bible does.
Anonymous "Tom, MLK was pro life if you are to believe his daughter."
Easy solution: Don't believe his daughter. Instead, read his own words ("Words are inadequate for me to say how honored I was to be the recipient of the Margaret Sanger Award...").
Anonymous "MLK embraced the positions on homosexuality as the Bible does."
He wanted them stoned to death? That would have come as quite a surprise to Bayard Rustin.
In any event, I wouldn't be surprised that a Black minister in the 1960s would not have an enlightened, modern, post-Obama "evolving on gay marriage" stance.
As part of her efforts to promote birth control, Sanger found common cause with proponents of eugenics, believing that they both sought to "assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit." Sanger was a proponent of negative eugenics, which aims to improve human hereditary traits through social intervention by reducing reproduction by those considered unfit. Sanger's eugenic policies included an exclusionary immigration policy, free access to birth control methods and full family planning autonomy for the able-minded, and compulsory segregation or sterilization for the profoundly retarded.
Chuck Morre says
Awards, I seem to recall Obama getting the Noble Peace Prize 4 years ago, and we are still in a war!
Really, is that the best you can do?
Alas, the Nobel Peace Prize is often a joke. War criminal Henry Kissinger won it. Jimmy Carter, who tried to keep Somoza in power in Nicaragua as the whole country was rising up against him, won it. OK, some good folks like Martin Luther King also won it. But, still, no surprise that Barack Obama won it despite continuing two inherited wars and starting a couple of new ones.
Did Senator Obama vote for the wars he later inherited? Did Al Gore win a Peace Prize, if so you are 100% correct about the award being a joke.
MLK, he was correctly awarded one, Obama was not.
Awards, didn't Bill Clinton just get father of the year award?
What would MLK think of this?
Monday: Obama Says No More Name-Calling In Politics –
Wednesday: Dem Senator Calls Republicans “Hostage-Takers”…
YES WE CAN!
Yes We Can keep the labor participation rate at an all time low and unemployment around 8 percent!
Yes We Can have an all time high of people of food stamps!
Yes We Can have an all time high of people on Social Security Disability!
Yes We Can have helicopter Ben drop electronically created money from the skies!
Yes We Can squeeze every nickel we can out of small business so that they go belly up!
YES WE CAN!
YES WE CAN!
Yes We Can keep the labor participation rate at an all time low and unemployment around 8 percent!
Yes We Can have an all time high of people on food stamps!
Yes We Can have an all time high of people on Social Security Disability!
Yes We Can have helicopter Ben drop electronically created money from the skies!
Yes We Can squeeze every nickel we can out of small business so that they go belly up!
Yes We Can have private businesses limit their employee headcount, even if they need extra employees, so that they don't have to pay for ObamaCare!
Yes We Can get exempted from ObamaCare if we gave contributions to the Socialist I mean Democratic Party!
YES WE CAN!
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