On September 20, 1958, a 29-year-old Martin Luther King was in Blumstein's department store in Harlem, New York, autographing copies of his book Stride Toward Freedom, about the Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott.
Suddenly Izola Ware Curry, a well-dressed 42-year-old woman sprung forward and stabbed King in the chest with a letter opener. Curry was apprehended and aides rushed around King, trying to decide whether to remove the knife or not. One aide tried but gave up after she sliced her hand on the edge of the weapon. It was decided to wait for the doctors at the hospital to remove the knife. The decision likely saved King's life.
Two surgeons, Dr. Emil Naclerio- an Italian immigrant, and Dr. John W. V. Cordice, Jr., who was the flight surgeon for the Tuskegee Airmen, took King to the operating room. The surgeons realized the knife was right on King's aorta. Simply pulling it out would slice open his aorta and he would bleed to death, The surgeons removed two of King's ribs in a two-hour operation and removed the weapon that way.
After the operation, Dr. Naclerio said that if King had coughed or sneezed before the operation, he would have likely died.
All of this before King really had the chance to affect the County and fight for equality. In in 1958, his "I have a Dream" speech he would give five years later was not even a dream.
TRUE OR FALSE?
Two States celebrate King/Lee day and today also celebrate the career of traitor Robert E. Lee. That cannot be right in 2023 can it?
Of course it can.
So which two states? you guess-
Maine/California
Washinton State/New York
Mississippi/Alabama
or
Vermont/New Hampshire
Hint- Y'all can guess it right if y'all try hard enough.
Lee was a secessionist, not a traitor. You could call him a seditionist also. But traitor is incorrect.
ReplyDeleteRobert R Lee took up arms against the government of the United States. He killed US citizens. He graduated from West Point and resigned his commission in the US Army to fight against the army and the government. He was a traitor.
ReplyDeleteGoogle says, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida celebrate Robert E. Lee day. Am I confusing him with Judge Robert Lee in Broward?
ReplyDeleteTraitor.
ReplyDeleteImagine today if an Army officer took off his uniform, dressed in the uniform of an enemy army, and fought and killed U.S. Army soldiers. What would we call him?
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason . . . ." 18 USC 2381
Lee was not just a traitor, by the way, he was a traitorous looser. He and his side lost, after all.
If the South had won we all would be better off today.
ReplyDeleteLee was a secessionist. He was part of creating a new nation from an existing one. That is not treason. Are the people of Catalonia traitors for attempting to separate from Spain a few years ago? Are the Scots who wish to become independent of the UK traitors or secessionists?
ReplyDelete@421 - yes, they are traitors if they were military officers who turned coat and fought and killed. No, they are not traitors if all they did was sign petitions or vote in elections. Lee was the former (i.e. a traitor). Your inability to distinguish between violence and non-violence in comments regarding MLK are telling.
ReplyDeleteA fantastic strategist and a great military man. Smart, genteel, magnanimous in victory and galant in defeat. Definitely took arms against the United States and his former brothers in arms but doesn’t treason require a bit more deviousness? I mean he counseled against secession, publicly resigned his commission stating that as a citizen of Virginia he was bound to its political fortunes and didn’t shirk responsibility after his defeat by Grant. Traitors are sneaky and deceitful like Arnold and Trump. Lee was more honorable in spite of the odious cause for which he took up arms. Surely not in the same level of hell as the more famous traitors but certainly not deserving of his own day at taxpayer expense.
ReplyDelete4.59 is wrong. Lee was a traitor, despite his aura of honor and his ceremonial surrender of his sword at Appomattox. You can be open and still be a traitor: it's the actions not the demeanor which count.
ReplyDeleteI think he should be remembered, in his full historical context, just as others (even T****) should be remembered in their full historical context. But don't pretend that Lee was not a traitor to his country.