04.04.2012 07:42 AM

MLK

Since I was a kid – since this day in 1972, in fact, when I started writing a daily journal – I have always taken note of April 4, and said to myself:  “April 4.  Dr. King.”

Today, 44 years ago, Martin Luther King was murdered by a racist in Memphis.  Dr. King was a giant of man, the one who – as I write in my upcoming bookanticipated the message at the core of the Occupy movement, among other things.  While his message continues to resonate across the decades, the violence of racial hatred continues unabated, too.

It’s April 4, and so I give you some of his most remarkable speech.  Surveying the pygmies who now crowd the public stage, I don’t think we will see the likes of him again.

50 Comments

  1. Billy boy says:

    It is astounding to me that a post bemoaning racist hatred culminates in a racist slur that merely serves to perpetuate such bigotry. No wonder both Conservatives and Social Democrats repeatedly point out the hypocrisy and petty opportunism of Liberals.

  2. William says:

    Surveying the pygmies who now crowd the public stage, I don’t think we will see the likes of him again.

    ————-

    You’re probably right but not because they aren’t there. More likely because the prism that shows us these people has been co-opted by a sound bite media looking for a hidden agenda rather than an honest message.

  3. Trevor says:

    Study: Republicans, whites more tired of Trayvon Martin coverage

    http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/justice/florida-teen-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

  4. GPAlta says:

    If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

    Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/king/words/blueprint.html

  5. Riaz Khan says:

    After 9/11, I noticed that the looks in peoples’ eyes were different. A day after, there were racist remarks printed on my garage door calling me Arabs- go home. After that, few of the guys on the street, stayed with me. My wife who is white and Canadian moved in with her parents. Me- I was just sad. I can debate the most complex issues in the world but when it comes to racism, I am speechless. I dont know what to say. That reaction has always troubled people around me who get more upset than I do. I just get sad. Just few weeks ago, we were in the car and saw these 20 something. They were five in total and did not see my full physical structure. They gave me the bird and said: You have a bomb and laughed loud. My wife wanted to get out of the car but I told her no. I am 6 feet 3 and 235 lbs and they were not more than mini Dr. Evil. I could have done some serious damage to their physical structure but again, I just got sad. Human mind which can produce the most fascinating things like the music, art, medicine, science can also have a racism some where in the mind. That I do not and will not understand.

    MLK, Gandhi and Mandela remain my heroes.

  6. Attack! says:

    For further reading:

    The Trayvon Martin Killing, Explained:
    How did a kid armed with Skittles and iced tea get gunned down by an overeager neighborhood watch captain? And will George Zimmerman remain free? (FREQUENT UPDATES.)
    —By Adam Weinstein, Mother Jones magazine

    http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/what-happened-trayvon-martin-explained

    • smelter rat says:

      Gord and the rest of the Conborg aren’t allowed to read MJ. They might get “ideas”, if you know what I mean.

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