Martin Luther King

Today the United States marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of one of it's giants : Martin Luther King, Jr.

The video that I present here is of Robert Kennedy announcing the tragedy to an Indiana crowd that had rallied to support his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Full text of the speech :

Even when the words in question have had 40 years' worth of sacred, timeless truth seeping into each and every one of them.

(UPDATE by Liza: Chris Chinn has claimed this text as the work of his genius. You can find the whole post at LiveJournal.)

###

Yesterday I posted Part 1 of The Art of Defending Racism. Fitting for a Martin Luther King day discussion, here is its concluding section.

The Art of Defending Racism : Advanced Tactics!

The Russian Retreat (Be like Water)
Naturally, anyone who attempts to call you on a racist behavior, will probably try to also refute your defense. Fortunately for you, when your defense isn't based on actual reasons, but simply irrationality, you can switch tactics on the drop of a dime without any explanation.

Simply switch from one defense to another, randomly, and let your opponent continue to wear themselves out trying to penetrate your happy wall of racist belief!

For additional fun, you can switch to a tactic you've used previously. Half of them will not even notice they've been led in a circle, the other half will lose all hope and give up! Hurrah for ignorance!

The Wall of Whiteness
As the Greeks knew, the key to a good defense was teamwork. If you have more than one person supporting racism involved in the conversation, then all of you should use different tactics simultaneously --your opponent will have to fight on multiple fronts, and have to keep switching his or her train of thought to meet each defense. They'll wear out in no time, and, you can reinforce and protect each other's 3 beliefs.

[via fourfour: MLK in the house]:

The original, instrumental version of "Can You Feel It" from 1986 is considered by many to be the first deep house track. This, then, is a sort of meeting of iconoclastic minds.

Marin is in da houze! Check it out here here.

Do you have cool music that goes with the day?
Spit it out and link it in!
If you have a blog here, just upload through your blog.
Just sayin'.

Today we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. As I have already said elsewhere, the man and his speech, "Let Freedom Ring" have a very special place in my heart.

But there is another reason why I have been thinking about this speech : I have been pondering a lot about these things called the "liberal", the "progressive", the "feminist" netroots. I am starting to see the dichotomies and the reasons why it may or may not work within the current political infrastructure people in the so-called Left have at their disposal. Notice I am putting these words in quotations because, I think we need explain what we mean by liberal or progressive or feminist. I will come back to these definitions later.

For the moment, I ask you : When it comes to civil rights, what kind of an activist are you?

When you read this :

[via c u l t u r e k i t c h e n: forty years later : martin luther king's "let freedom ring" speech]:

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds". But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this cheque - a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquillising drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children.

Do you read it as a call to social equality and freedom for social mobility?

Or

Do you read it as a call to social justice, reparations and a redistribution of capital and wealth?

I believe that by the way we interpret this snippet we can define what kind of a progressive, liberal or feminist we are.

So y'all have some lot of 'splainin' to do.