Mlk @ MindSay 
martin luther king
And I say to you, I have also decided to stick to love. For I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate. I've seen to much hate on the faces of sheriffs in the South. I've seen hate on the faces of too many Klansmen and too many White Citizens Councilors in the South to want to hate myself, because every time I see it, I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
I want to say to you as I move to my conclusion, as we talk about Where do we go from here, that we honestly face the fact that the movement must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society. There are forty million poor people here. And one day we must ask the question, Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society. We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life's marketplace.
But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. You see, my friends, when you deal with this, you begin to ask the question, Who owns the oil? You begin to ask the question, Who owns the iron ore? You begin to ask the question, Why is it that people have to pay water bills in a world that is two-thirds water? These are questions that must be asked.
Now, don't think that you have me in a bind today. I'm not talking about communism.
What I'm saying to you this morning is that communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. Now, when I say question the whole society, it means ultimately coming to see that the problem of racism, the problem of exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together. These are the triple evils that are interrelated.
If you will let me be a preacher just a little bit—One night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what he could do to be saved. Jesus didn't get bogged down in the kind of isolated approach of what he shouldn't do. Jesus didn't say, Now Nicodemus, you must stop lying. He didn't say, Nicodemus, you must stop cheating if you are doing that. He didn't say, Nicodemus, you must not commit adultery. He didn't say, Nicodemus, now you must stop drinking liquor if you are doing that excessively. He said something altogether different, because Jesus realized something basic—that if a man will lie, he will steal. And if a man will steal, he will kill. So instead of just getting bogged down in one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, Nicodemus, you must be born again.
He said, in other words, Your whole structure must be changed. A nation that will keep people in slavery for 244 years will thingify them—make them things. Therefore they will exploit them, and poor people generally, economically. And a nation that will exploit economically will have foreign investments and everything else, and will have to use its military to protect them. All of these problems are tied together.
What I am saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, America, you must be born again!
So, I conclude by saying again today that we have a task and let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction. Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort and the inner city of poverty and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. Let us be dissatisfied until those that live on the outskirts of hope are brought into the metropolis of daily security. Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family is living in a decent sanitary home. Let us be dissatisfied until the dark yesterdays of segregated schools will be transformed into bright tomorrows of quality, integrated education. Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity to participate in the beauty of diversity. Let us be dissatisfied until men and women, however black they may be, will be judged on the basis of the content of their character and not on the basis of the color of their skin. Let us be dissatisfied.
Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol houses a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy and who will walk humbly with his God. Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid. Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout White Power! -- when nobody will shout Black Power!—but everybody will talk about God's power and human power."....
Read the FULL speech here.
Do people NOT know flag etiquette???
The United States Flag Code dictates "the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory." The length of time varies. If a president or former president dies, the flag is flown at half-staff for 30 days. If a vice president, the chief justice, or the speaker of the house dies, it's 10 days. Members of Congress are honored on the day of their death as well as the day after.
The president or a governor must make the call to fly the flag at half-mast on any other day. And while private residences with flags aren't required to follow these rules, they are encouraged to as a sign of respect.
I suppose as prior service this hits a particularly STRONG note with me, but this is beyond the pale in my opinion. And then the article says "she wore the mantle of princess well." Princess? excuse you me! Princess of what? Really I think this is far and above ridiculous. And let's Not even get into all the usual suspects who dip an oar in at times like this: Jackson, Shartpon, et al.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/16/obit.king.ap/index.html
How long has it been since you said the right thing, and took some heat for it? How long since you stood on principle, regardless of the consequences? Let us set our eyes on Jesus and walk a straight line.
I found this while doing some research on the truth behind Martin Luther King. While the man did lots of good for the people he represented, I find it ironic that his own life and the rather bad man he was is conveniently forgot. So while I might agree he was a great man for the Black populous, I despise him on a personal level.
Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist?
02-May-2003
Dear Cecil:
What is the straight dope on Martin Luther King, Jr.? Did he plagiarize most of his writing, including his Ph.D. thesis? Was he a communist? Did he really use donated money for prostitutes? These allegations were brought up on a now defunct Web page supposedly in order "[not] to bring down MLK, Jr." but to "subject him to the same sort of dirt-digging that leaders such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, and other dead white guys have suffered." The same contentions are cited at christianparty.net/mlktruth.htm, and probably other Web sites. If anyone can shed light on this, oh Master, it is you; please edify us. --Roy Greene, Frederick, Maryland
Cecil replies:
"Edifying" is not the first word that comes to mind in this context. However, one must face the facts.
Considering how he was vilified while he was alive, Martin Luther King, Jr. has gotten off easy since his death, despite some embarrassing posthumous revelations. Partly that's because he's been embraced by conservatives, who now point to him as a symbol of moderation and self-reliance, in contrast to the likes of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton. Still, as you say, certain questions arise.
Was he a communist?
No, but the sustained effort by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to portray King as a Bolshevik wasn't purely a product of cold war paranoia. A number of King's associates were former communists, notably New York lawyer Stanley Levison, who had been active in the Communist Party USA as late as 1956. Levison was one of King's most trusted confidants and helped write some of his speeches. King's political views can safely be described as left of center--among other things he vociferously opposed the Vietnam war. But the available evidence suggests he was neither a communist nor unduly influenced by Marxist ideas.
Did he spend donated money on prostitutes?
The most sordid charges about MLK's sex life, this one included, come from the FBI and can't necessarily be trusted. But there's no doubt about what one biographer calls King's "compulsive sexual athleticism." King's attitude toward women was chauvinist and often exploitative. In his 1989 autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, King's close friend and fellow civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy writes that on the night before he died, King gave a rousing speech, had dinner with a woman afterward and remained with her till 1 AM, then came back to his motel to spend the night with a second woman. In the early morning hours a third woman came looking for King and became angry when she found the bed in the room he shared with Abernathy unoccupied. When King reappeared, he argued with woman #3 and wound up knocking her across the bed.
In his 1991 memoir, Breaking Barriers, journalist Carl Rowan writes that in 1964 congressman John Rooney told him that he and his congressional committee had heard J. Edgar Hoover play an audiotape of an apparent orgy held in King's Washington hotel suite. Over the sounds of a couple having intercourse in the background, according to Rooney, King could be heard saying to a man identified as Abernathy, "Come on over here, you big black motherfucker, and let me suck your dick." Horrors, King was gay! (Rowan thinks this was just ribald repartee.) In his account of the same episode, civil rights historian Taylor Branch attributes a couple more quotes to King: "I'm fucking for God!" and "I'm not a Negro tonight!" The FBI anonymously sent King (or, according to some accounts, King's wife, Coretta) a tape of compromising material recorded in his hotel rooms. The tape was either accompanied or followed up by a note suggesting that King should commit suicide if he wished to avoid exposure.
Did he plagiarize most of his writings?
He plagiarized a lot of them. An investigation conducted by Boston University, where King got his Ph.D. in theology, determined that he had appropriated roughly a third of his doctoral thesis from a dissertation written three years earlier by another graduate student. Curiously, the same faculty member had been "first reader" of both theses, leading some to wonder whether King's faculty advisers at BU were incompetent or just guilty white liberals who gave a promising young black leader a pass. King also "borrowed" portions of many other writings and speeches, including the famous "I have a dream" speech he gave at the 1963 civil rights rally in Washington.
As every reasonable observer has commented, neither King's sexual wanderings nor his scholarly misdeeds detract from his core achievement. By continually publicizing black grievances while putting a palatable, nonviolent face on resistance to jim crow, King paved the way for the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s and a major turnaround in public attitudes about race. But there's no getting around the fact that he was a complex and deeply flawed man. Was he a great American? No argument here. Was he a fraud and a hypocrite? He was that, too.
--CECIL ADAMS
Showing 1 - 5. [ Next ]