MLK on 60 Minutes in 1968.
We will have our National Championship analysis up later today.
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King.. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2026
Monday, January 16, 2023
HAPPY KING -ROBERT E LEE DAY
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.
Monday, January 20, 2020
MLK 2020
We celebrate the birthday of Dr. King in the fine American tradition of honoring him on a day other than his birthday. If it's good enough for Lincoln and Washington, then it's good enough for Dr. King.
People will sidle up to the memory of the civil rights leader by endlessly requoting his famous speeches and quotes. Blah blah blah blah "Injustice anywhere is...." . Been there and done that.
Let's try something new.
What if we could talk to Dr. King today? If he was somehow able to travel in time before his murder, what would he see and what would we tell him?
Here's the good news Dr. King. You will be gratified to know an African-American man was elected president twice. You need to know Dr. King that we no longer use the term "negro". We now use African-American or Black. Women routinely run for president and sometimes they get the most votes but don't win (it's a long story). For the most part (we aren't there yet, but it's better) people hire doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, chefs, engineers, and mostly people in any profession without regard to race. But there are still only three black head coaches in the NFL.
We lost the Vietnam war but somehow managed to get stronger, learning the lessons from a bitter defeat. There are more nuclear weapons, but thankfully we haven't used them since WWII. We routinely live in space and launches and splashdowns don't even make the news. Videos of kittens jumping on balls of wool get more attention than a space launch.
Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne, but her youngest grandson just resigned from The Firm. By the way Harry (as he is called), married a divorced woman of mixed race and that is the least interesting part of the story.
We make meat from vegetables. Fat is healthy (not being fat, that's still bad. But unbelievably, we learned that eating fat makes you thin. It's harder than it sounds.) We eat a lot of sushi. The ramen noodles that generations of college students lived on for 69 cents a package now costs twenty bucks a bowl served in fancy restaurants. McDonalds still sells hamburgers for less than a buck. No one smokes cigarettes anymore, but young people do something called vaping.
Here's the bad news. Your intention in going to Memphis in April of 1968 was to begin the struggle against economic inequality by supporting striking sanitation workers. You were planning a second march on Washington, this time for economic justice. You saw that the real battle for the soul of America was not racial equality, but economic equality.
We are far away from achieving your goal.
A large percentage of Americans, White, Black, Hispanic and Asian work multiple jobs to support their families. For example, teachers routinely work a second job in a place called Starbucks selling seven dollar cups of coffee or drive what used to be called taxis for something called Uber. The thought of a one or two income household providing a home, food, healthcare, transportation and even the ability to take a vacation now and then never seemed farther away.
Our upcoming election promises to fracture the country even more. On the right we have Republicans that have little concern for hard working Americans that just cannot make it. Super-corporations skirt the laws of tax and health care by providing jobs just a few hours under what is required for full time benefits.
On the left we have socialist candidates that want to break up companies that have provided our country with the technological advantages that have allowed us to compete in a global economy. We don't seem to have anyone who can unite us and find common ground. And there is this weird person who runs the Seanate called Mitch McConnell. And there is an even weirder senator named Bernie Sanders who is running for president even though he just had a heart attack.
The world is over-heating; the oceans are polluted and acidic almost beyond repair and the polar regions are melting which means coastal cities around the world will be flooded. 100 year droughts are routinely followed by 100 year floods and world leaders don't seem to be able to agree on how to heal our planet. Some politicans flout science and evdience to wild cheers from their constituents. Xenophobia is at a peak. Things look grim.
Video phones are real, but we don't use them a whole lot. Actually we don't talk to each other very much. We send these electronic messages called texts from phones that we carry around. Walk down the street of any city and 80% of the people are hunched over staring at their electronic devices. It's fun but it's not good.
The news is on 24 hours a day. You can shop without ever leaving your home. There are thousands of TV channels available. The Rolling Stones are still giving concerts. Really. Yes we have done the math. They are older than Moses but rock and roll hasn't died out yet. We also have something called Rap. Remember that commercial of the Native American with a tear rolling down his eye because someone threw some garbage out of a car? Rap would make him weep uncontrollably.
We have these really neat things called Uber- Eats, Netflix, Tinder, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and someone called Kim Khardashian.
Every city in the US has a Martin Luther King Street, Avenue, school, or other public property honoring your life and work. And of course we take a day off to celebrate your birthday. But you gave us more than you took and we still owe you more than we recognize.
You really wouldn't recognize the place.
People will sidle up to the memory of the civil rights leader by endlessly requoting his famous speeches and quotes. Blah blah blah blah "Injustice anywhere is...." . Been there and done that.
Let's try something new.
What if we could talk to Dr. King today? If he was somehow able to travel in time before his murder, what would he see and what would we tell him?
Here's the good news Dr. King. You will be gratified to know an African-American man was elected president twice. You need to know Dr. King that we no longer use the term "negro". We now use African-American or Black. Women routinely run for president and sometimes they get the most votes but don't win (it's a long story). For the most part (we aren't there yet, but it's better) people hire doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, chefs, engineers, and mostly people in any profession without regard to race. But there are still only three black head coaches in the NFL.
We lost the Vietnam war but somehow managed to get stronger, learning the lessons from a bitter defeat. There are more nuclear weapons, but thankfully we haven't used them since WWII. We routinely live in space and launches and splashdowns don't even make the news. Videos of kittens jumping on balls of wool get more attention than a space launch.
Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne, but her youngest grandson just resigned from The Firm. By the way Harry (as he is called), married a divorced woman of mixed race and that is the least interesting part of the story.
We make meat from vegetables. Fat is healthy (not being fat, that's still bad. But unbelievably, we learned that eating fat makes you thin. It's harder than it sounds.) We eat a lot of sushi. The ramen noodles that generations of college students lived on for 69 cents a package now costs twenty bucks a bowl served in fancy restaurants. McDonalds still sells hamburgers for less than a buck. No one smokes cigarettes anymore, but young people do something called vaping.
Here's the bad news. Your intention in going to Memphis in April of 1968 was to begin the struggle against economic inequality by supporting striking sanitation workers. You were planning a second march on Washington, this time for economic justice. You saw that the real battle for the soul of America was not racial equality, but economic equality.
We are far away from achieving your goal.
A large percentage of Americans, White, Black, Hispanic and Asian work multiple jobs to support their families. For example, teachers routinely work a second job in a place called Starbucks selling seven dollar cups of coffee or drive what used to be called taxis for something called Uber. The thought of a one or two income household providing a home, food, healthcare, transportation and even the ability to take a vacation now and then never seemed farther away.
Our upcoming election promises to fracture the country even more. On the right we have Republicans that have little concern for hard working Americans that just cannot make it. Super-corporations skirt the laws of tax and health care by providing jobs just a few hours under what is required for full time benefits.
On the left we have socialist candidates that want to break up companies that have provided our country with the technological advantages that have allowed us to compete in a global economy. We don't seem to have anyone who can unite us and find common ground. And there is this weird person who runs the Seanate called Mitch McConnell. And there is an even weirder senator named Bernie Sanders who is running for president even though he just had a heart attack.
The world is over-heating; the oceans are polluted and acidic almost beyond repair and the polar regions are melting which means coastal cities around the world will be flooded. 100 year droughts are routinely followed by 100 year floods and world leaders don't seem to be able to agree on how to heal our planet. Some politicans flout science and evdience to wild cheers from their constituents. Xenophobia is at a peak. Things look grim.
Video phones are real, but we don't use them a whole lot. Actually we don't talk to each other very much. We send these electronic messages called texts from phones that we carry around. Walk down the street of any city and 80% of the people are hunched over staring at their electronic devices. It's fun but it's not good.
The news is on 24 hours a day. You can shop without ever leaving your home. There are thousands of TV channels available. The Rolling Stones are still giving concerts. Really. Yes we have done the math. They are older than Moses but rock and roll hasn't died out yet. We also have something called Rap. Remember that commercial of the Native American with a tear rolling down his eye because someone threw some garbage out of a car? Rap would make him weep uncontrollably.
We have these really neat things called Uber- Eats, Netflix, Tinder, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and someone called Kim Khardashian.
Every city in the US has a Martin Luther King Street, Avenue, school, or other public property honoring your life and work. And of course we take a day off to celebrate your birthday. But you gave us more than you took and we still owe you more than we recognize.
You really wouldn't recognize the place.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
WELCOME BACK FROM MLK WEEKEND 2018
"Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere."
Dr. MLK, Letter From Birmingham Jail. April 16, 1963.
It occurs to us that if Dr. King were jailed today, he would face daily costs for jail food and use of jail facilities, which is an injustice.
In the spring of 1968, Dr. King had a rally for economic injustice planned for Washington DC., but first he had a stop in Memphis, Tennessee, planned to support local waste workers (garbage men) who were on strike. The rest is, sadly history.
Economic injustice, even more than racial injustice, was the big target on King's radar in April, 1968. King realized, well before his time, that it wasn't going to be the color of a person's skin, but size of a person's bank account, that was going, in the long run, to affect a person's ability to survive and thrive in the world. And while there is a correlation between race and economic success, there is also a correlation between economic success and health, happiness, longevity, education...you name it. In other words, economics, more than race, is the great un-equalizer.
We live in a highly regulated world, where a person's background is available with a few clicks.
Lots of people get arrested, but people who can afford a private defense are more likely to avoid the petty criminal convictions that still cost a person in society. Case in point: Many years ago we represented a prominent anesthesiologist who, looking to sell his extra U of M football tickets during game day at the stadium, was arrested for some ridiculous violation of a City ordinance for selling without a license, or some such nonsense. Unlike other "ticket scalpers" we were able to get the charges dismissed for our client. The good doctor spent no time in jail, and his/her record remains clean.
Other, less fortunate souls, would have a conviction, time in jail before they could bond out, court costs, and other potential economic costs that they could ill afford to pay.
In other words, when are we going to try to stop balancing the court budget on the backs of the poor who cannot afford to pay exorbitant court costs. The "payment plan" system (in some backwater room on the fifth floor of the REGJB, populated by those nameless, faceless public servants who add grist to the mill of the system) is just a "Christmas Club" for Tallahassee, where poor Floridians make the payments, and the politicians get the gifts.
“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
Dr. MLK, Letter From Birmingham Jail. April 16, 1963.
It occurs to us that if Dr. King were jailed today, he would face daily costs for jail food and use of jail facilities, which is an injustice.
In the spring of 1968, Dr. King had a rally for economic injustice planned for Washington DC., but first he had a stop in Memphis, Tennessee, planned to support local waste workers (garbage men) who were on strike. The rest is, sadly history.
Economic injustice, even more than racial injustice, was the big target on King's radar in April, 1968. King realized, well before his time, that it wasn't going to be the color of a person's skin, but size of a person's bank account, that was going, in the long run, to affect a person's ability to survive and thrive in the world. And while there is a correlation between race and economic success, there is also a correlation between economic success and health, happiness, longevity, education...you name it. In other words, economics, more than race, is the great un-equalizer.
We live in a highly regulated world, where a person's background is available with a few clicks.
Lots of people get arrested, but people who can afford a private defense are more likely to avoid the petty criminal convictions that still cost a person in society. Case in point: Many years ago we represented a prominent anesthesiologist who, looking to sell his extra U of M football tickets during game day at the stadium, was arrested for some ridiculous violation of a City ordinance for selling without a license, or some such nonsense. Unlike other "ticket scalpers" we were able to get the charges dismissed for our client. The good doctor spent no time in jail, and his/her record remains clean.
Other, less fortunate souls, would have a conviction, time in jail before they could bond out, court costs, and other potential economic costs that they could ill afford to pay.
In other words, when are we going to try to stop balancing the court budget on the backs of the poor who cannot afford to pay exorbitant court costs. The "payment plan" system (in some backwater room on the fifth floor of the REGJB, populated by those nameless, faceless public servants who add grist to the mill of the system) is just a "Christmas Club" for Tallahassee, where poor Floridians make the payments, and the politicians get the gifts.
“The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”
“The three evils of society,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967.
SEX AND THE MARRIED PRESIDENT
In perusing the "President had sex with a porn star" headlines and articles this weekend, we came across this quote about sex and the presidency: "Chronic indiscipline, compulsion, exploitation, the easy betrayal of vows, all suggest something wrong at a deep level-something habitual and beyond control."
It is true the allegations about Trump having sex with a porn star were said to have occurred a year after Trump married the current Mrs. Trump in 2005.
But this quote was from our conservative friend Bill Bennnett, and his book in 1999 "The Death Of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals."
Huh. Well how about that?
The easy betrayal of sacred wedding vows. The chronic indiscipline...all suggest something beyond control. Well, yeah., but...this is 2017, and the president in question is a Republican (well, sort of, not a Bush or Regan or Eisenhower or Teddy Roosevelt Republican, but still...), so maybe now it's time to just attribute such behavior to "boys will be boys" and not the moral outrage that accompanied the sex life of the last white-democratic President.
Real American men just grab em by the you-know-what. Morals? Those are for Presidents who claim to be born in Hawaii (but maybe Africa). They aren't for true blue, manly Republican presidents. Right? They don't need morals....or do they?
From Occupied America, Fight the Power!SEX AND THE MARRIED PRESIDENT
In perusing the "President had sex with a porn star" headlines and articles this weekend, we came across this quote about sex and the presidency: "Chronic indiscipline, compulsion, exploitation, the easy betrayal of vows, all suggest something wrong at a deep level-something habitual and beyond control."
It is true the allegations about Trump having sex with a porn star were said to have occurred a year after Trump married the current Mrs. Trump in 2005.
But this quote was from our conservative friend Bill Bennnett, and his book in 1999 "The Death Of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals."
Huh. Well how about that?
The easy betrayal of sacred wedding vows. The chronic indiscipline...all suggest something beyond control. Well, yeah., but...this is 2017, and the president in question is a Republican (well, sort of, not a Bush or Regan or Eisenhower or Teddy Roosevelt Republican, but still...), so maybe now it's time to just attribute such behavior to "boys will be boys" and not the moral outrage that accompanied the sex life of the last white-democratic President.
Real American men just grab em by the you-know-what. Morals? Those are for Presidents who claim to be born in Hawaii (but maybe Africa). They aren't for true blue, manly Republican presidents. Right? They don't need morals....or do they?
Monday, January 16, 2017
RIDING A TIGER
THERE IS NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
A new President takes office in five days.
Qi hu nan xia
"When on the tiger's back, it's hard to dismount."
Chinese Proverb.
See You In Court.
We've made a tidy sum on the November/December Trump rally. What area of Canada should we buy a ranch in?
Monday, April 04, 2011
THE PROMISED LAND
On the evening of April 3, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King stood in the Mason Temple Church in Memphis, Tennessee. It was raining terribly hard that evening and King had not felt like attending the meeting. He almost sent Jesse Jackson to speak on his behalf.
He had less than 24 hours to live.
King was in Memphis that rainy evening because he had been there previously a week or so before and met with black sanitation workers who, while on strike against the City for better working conditions and wages, had carried a placard with a simple message: "I AM A MAN."
King was drawn to the sanitation workers plight and their struggle. In the back of his mind he had been planning the next stage of the civil rights movement- the struggle for economic rights for all Americans. To that end King was planning another march on Washington, DC. This march would highlight the insidious effects of generational poverty. From the white coal workers in Appalachia to the black sanitation workers in Memphis, King wanted to do to poverty what his movement of non-violence was doing for civil rights.
In anticipation of a court battle over an injunction the City had obtained against the march, King spoke of many things on his last full night on earth in that Memphis church. He spoke of marching in Alabama and Mississippi against the dogs and water cannons and billy clubs of his opponents. He spoke of racial injustice, and the economic power of American Black people- which he said, when combined and marshaled together was more than most nations on earth. He spoke of- if being given a choice of anytime in history to live- that he would choose that time and that moment. He spoke of why he was in Memphis and he spoke, tellingly, and in hindsight chillingly, of his possible death.
We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying -- We are saying that we are God's children. And that we are God's children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live.....
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop.
And I don't mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!
On the evening of the next day, 43, years ago today, April 4, 1968, as his lawyers fought with the City over injunctions against the march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had steadfastly refused to allow bodyguards of any sort to protect him, was shot dead as he stood enjoying the evening air on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
If we take him at his word, Martin King died a happy man, fearing none, not worrying about anything, and having seen the glory of the coming of the lord.
See You In Court.
Monday, January 19, 2009
DREAM FULFILLED?
THE DREAM:
"I have a dream that one day my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
FULFILLED?
(the title of the post links to last year's MLK post which has the You Tube video of the "I have a dream" speech. Any child 7 and over should watch it today.
Paris Twitters. So does Don Rumsfeld and Chad Pennington and Pat Buchanan. (We're making this up, but it's fun. Twitter!!!!)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
THE DREAM FULFILLED
Dr. King began his remarks by stating he believed he was speaking at the "greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation." He was right.
During his famous speech he dreamed of the day his "four little children would live in a nation where they would be judged not by not the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Those were words which have touched my soul and have directed my life, for better or worse.
Tonight, a young man who was a child at the time of that speech accepts the nomination of the Democratic Party, and will be asking a nation to judge him, not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
Barak Obama is a black man, but that is the least and worst reason to consider voting for him (or against him).
Vote for him because he comes from a broken family, and became a man who is raising two daughters with his wife. Vote for him because he is smart. Vote for him because he used his Harvard degree not to obtain wealth on Wall Street, which was his right to do, but because he saw wrong in the neighborhoods of his home, and went back to do right.
In short, examine Mr. Obama's character and his ideas and his promises, and vote for him or don't vote for him, and don't even consider the color of his skin. That decision, either way you make it, fulfills the dream of Martin King and validates the greatness of this country.
The title to this post links to the You-Tube video of Dr. King's entire speech. It's a worthy way to spend 18 minutes of your day. Make it a habit to read this speech to your children or show them the you tube video once a year, every August 28.
We have not made the decision on who to vote for. We have often averred that had John McCain not been savaged by Karl Rove's henchmen of the religious right 8 years ago in the South Carolina primary against Bush, he would have won the presidency, and this country and this world would be a much different and better place.
So we anticipate the speech of Senator Obama tonight, and Senator McCain in a week or so for now, and we hope one of them lays forth the dreams we as a nation can set about working to fulfill in the next fifty years.
PS. KUDOS to Defense Attorney Frank Rubio for his stunning NOT GUILTY verdict in the case in which his client was charged with attempted murder of songwriter Estefano. The coverage is on the front page of the Herald here.
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