January 17th, 2008 -- Posted in Ramblings |
Really, do you need 13 reasons? Isn’t that tomorrow is Friday good enough? It’s entering a three day weekend.
Question…and this is a real question and I am seeking real answers.
Is this true? Anyone know? Lurkers, jump in here. What do you think? My immediate thought was that someone, for sick kicks and giggles, decided to play with their photoshop. When I open the pic in my photo editing program I can’t see any evidence of manipulation. I checked truthorfiction.com and that site kept correcting my spelling. I checked Snopes and got undetermined. So, what do you know about it? If it is true then it is a very sad statement for society today…even if it isn’t.
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Snopes says…
November 27th, 2005 -- Posted in History, Ramblings |
According to Vincent Gordon Harding, what was the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.?
source: “King as Disturber of the Peace” in Major Problems in American History Since 1945
Martin Luther King Jr. is revered as a great orator and leader of the Civil Rights movement proclaiming nonviolence and civil disobedience. He is remembered most for his dream of black and white children playing together in the freedom of civil rights victory. Vincent Gordon Harding proclaims King to be so much more. Harding states, “Americans have chosen amnesia rather than continue King’s painful, uncharted, and often disruptive struggle toward a more perfect union (267).” The legacy of King is the groundwork of that struggle.
King made the choice to not just lobby for change. He made the choice to not just give speeches and organize marches. Harding describes the choice King made as one of determination and one of action. King committed himself to the cause of civil rights and to the betterment of life for poor citizens in America. He was willing to do more than just talk. King was willing to get in the trenches to lead the fight and fight along side those he tried to encourage. He was also aware of the growing discontent of African American youth and the attitude of the changing culture.
Black youth were more heavily affected by the rise in unemployment in cities such as Detroit. They saw little hope for a better life and altered their life goals accordingly. Many did not aspire to higher than what can be described as survival. The same youth questioned the nonviolence approach of Martin Luther King Jr. Harding explains that they did not understand why he preached a love of both black and white when so many African Americans did not even love themselves. There was a building rage among the youth that King, according to Harding, was aware of (268).
Harding describes a King that was not only determined to insight change, but a King that was willing to face the chaos that such change would bring. King wanted to see more than just doors opened for middle America. King wanted the poor to be lifted from their economic struggle, and to do so required American society to change. King began to challenge the mainstream of American life. In such challenge both black and white were uncomfortable. Many, of whom Harding refers to as respectable blacks, considered King’s aggressive push for societal change a threat to the professional gains they had made. King’s changes were based on negative assessment of the American economic order, a stance against the capitalism that did not uplift the poor in America (268).
Martin Luther King Jr. was a voice for change and had a vision of mobilizing the poor in America to liberate themselves from the plight of poverty. Harding reports King’s insistence that “the problem of racism, the problem of economic exploitation, and the problem of war are all tied together (269).” These are referred to as the triple evils. In order to overcome the triple evils a revamping of American society must take place. King called for a values revolution in America with the redistribution of American political and economic power to aid the poor (269).
Harding quotes a poem by Carl Wendell Hines stating “dead men . . . cannot rise to challenge the images we would fashion from their lives . . . it is easier to build monuments than to make a better world (266).” There is certainly an element of truth to Hines’ poem. When discussing the Civil Rights movement in America Martin Luther King Jr. is at the forefront, almost exclusive to all others. He is the first black man to receive national recognition in the form of a holiday. In this recognition many of his disruptive beliefs are lost in the grandeur of his accomplishments in the deep South. He is known for his accomplishments, with the disruption of struggle forgotten. Anything of such pivotal importance and extreme social reform will create disruption and will be a struggle. Kings’ legacy is the reminder of this struggle and the necessary fight for desired change. In the remembrance of King it is the struggle that Harding describes as part of the amnesia America faces.
According to Harding, the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is the vision of a society based on social, political, and economic equality. The legacy of action, not mere words. Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a good orator; he was a man willing to take the necessary action to organize and insight change. He was willing to not only speak about change and organize for change, he was willing to risk himself for it. He knew and understood the likelihood of his demise. His awareness of the growing frustrations in a changing America encouraged his revolutionary hope for American society. Harding stresses it is this hope that historians must embrace and revive awareness for.
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