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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail .

Today, Public Defender Stuff, written by investigators at Public Defender's Offices, hosts an excellent and eloquent tribute they call Welcome to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Blawg Review.

Hosting Blawg Review on MLK Day is a very special honor for me. Dr. King is one of many influences in my life that have led me not only to do the job I do, but to create Public Defender Stuff. Providing whatever support I can to the attorneys who fight for justice for those who otherwise would be on their own is the best way I know to honor Dr. King's memory, his life, his Dream. Our Dream.

I encourage you to read all of it.

My hope today, as every year, is that everyone will re-aquaint themselves with the extraordinary words of wisdom, vision and passion of Martin Luther King, Jr. It takes only a minute to watch this video. It features excerpts from Dr. King's 1967 Vietnam War speech, and ends with an appeal to take part in a Global Day of Protest on the (then) one-year anniversary of the Iraq War.

Last year, Alternet hosted an excellent compilation of some of Dr. King's most memorable quotes. Here are the links to the full text of just a few of his speeches.

There is a march in Denver today. Temperatures are hovering below zero, but the march is going on. Volunteers will have hand-warmers to give out to those who brave the frigid cold. I think the route goes down Colfax to Civic Center Park.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Maybe I don't (5.00 / 1) (#15)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 12:11:10 AM EST
    listen to this speech enough. But maybe that is because every time I do I tear up. Call me what you like, but that is just a pinnacle moment of human history. King officially announced our evolution beyond racism and human slavery. We think, therefore we are. RIP, for the remaining knuckle draggers still fill our minds with hate. Evolution is a slow process.

    Sorry I didn't link (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 12:12:40 AM EST
    to this version of "the speech".

    Takes a while to load but well worth the time.

    King (none / 0) (#1)
    by jondee on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 09:57:55 AM EST
    Now that he's been safely in the ground for 40+ years, the Swift Civil Rights Vets of the Right honor him. Some of us have better memories.

    I Ain't Gonna Study War No More - MLK (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:08:01 AM EST
    Stand
    For the things you know are right
    It's the truth that the truth makes them so uptight

    --Sly Stone

    We need a hero.... (none / 0) (#3)
    by kdog on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:18:25 AM EST
    like Martin Luther King today...desperately.  If he were alive today, I have no doubt he would be on the front lines fighting for social and economic justice for all peoples, as well as fighting against today's senseless war.

    Caught a few minutes of Juan Williams on FOX this morning talking about King.  He was waxing poetic about how proud King would be today at how black people have advanced in our society.  That may well be, but the King I know would not be satisfied.  Williams made no mention of King's fight for economic justice and peace, only the civil rights aspect of his work.  That only tells part of the story of the great Martin Luther King.

    Rhetorical question (none / 0) (#4)
    by jondee on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:24:36 AM EST
    How would Fox be talking about King if he were alive today?

    lol.... (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 10:35:10 AM EST
    They would call him a socialist, if not an outright communist.

    They would call him a terrorist sympathizer.

    And most certianly, he'd be called part of the problem.

    Part of me is amazed we have a national holiday in honor of King...it's obvious our govt. never got his message.

    Parent

    A minor observance (none / 0) (#12)
    by Sailor on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 03:20:40 PM EST
    They said almost all of the those things about King at the time.

    Ni**er, commie sympathizer, outside agitator; he was spied on, set up, shot down.

    The one hesitation I have is "he'd be called part of the problem."

    That phrase comes from the words of Stokely Carmichael. And the SOBs (GOPs) from then, or now, would never quote black American heroes ... until they've been dead for at least a generation.

    it's obvious our govt. never got his message.
    Yes, they did, and they co-opted it and turned it around via rovian newspeak: 'we honor Dr King' by doing everything he abhored.

    The above wasn't a crticism of your comment, more like an addendum.

    Parent

    No worries friend..... (none / 0) (#13)
    by kdog on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 05:07:31 PM EST
    I'm well aware that's what King was called by his detractors while he was alive.  And what a second coming of King would be called today.

    It's frustrating that only his civil rights message is remembered.  King also spoke eloquently against wars of occupation and aggresion, and the injustice of our economic system.  Those messages are never mentioned in the mainstream or by our leaders....just the civil rights.  Those messages are being glanced over and forgotten.  I guess what I'm saying is, if you are gonna honor the man, honor the man.  Or at least acknowledge who the man was and state your opposition.  Watching this Juan Williams cat use King to slam Jesse Jackson on FOX irked the crap out of me.  Talk about what King would say about Iraq guy! About income gaps!  

    Don't get me wrong, his accomplishments in civil rights alone are enough to honor him, but this great American was so much more than that.  After his murder, the mainstream came to agree with his civil rights message, and it is the now the law of the land.  I guess I wish they'd come on board with the rest of it. What a country we would have then!

    Parent

    And yet, in the year 2007... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Dadler on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 11:47:08 AM EST
    ...This kind of mentally retarded racist sh*t is still a part of American culture.

    Pretty sad state of affairs, isn't it Dadler? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 11:49:42 AM EST
    Most days we can read the same kind of crap between the lines in some comments here......

    Parent
    Yep (none / 0) (#10)
    by Dadler on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 02:55:56 PM EST
    The slight difference is certainly real, but the volcanic subtext is bubbling just beneath the surface.  Just waiting for the right event to fully "flower".

    Parent
    Yes, that aroma penetrates... (none / 0) (#11)
    by Edger on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 02:58:30 PM EST
    I could provide links, but I think I've done so enough times. They know who they are. So does most everyone else....

    Parent
    Not even Dr. King could educate or sway bush. (none / 0) (#8)
    by Bill Arnett on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 12:21:24 PM EST


    But I'd bet.... (none / 0) (#14)
    by kdog on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 05:10:06 PM EST
    he'd be marching to his doorstep, or be in jail for trying.

    Parent
    The Right honors what he stood for (none / 0) (#9)
    by jondee on Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 12:21:57 PM EST
    Reagan on King: "We'll never know if he was a communist."

    This is the mindset currently leading the nation.

    The words of a dreamer, the words of a profit (none / 0) (#17)
    by Aaron on Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 07:12:51 PM EST
    "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

    "A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look easily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: This is not just."

    "A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

    "America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from re-ordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood."

    "These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these revolutions."  

    Some excerpts from,

    Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
    Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam

    Delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
    April 1967
    At Manhattan's Riverside Church