Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King Jr. At 84: What Might Have Been?

Ronald 9 Comments

45 years ago on this day, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, ending his brief but eventful life at the age of 39.

Since his death, the vicious attacks on his nonviolent disobedience tactic in the civil rights movement has been rejected, except by the extreme right wing, which still contends that King and his followers were “communists”, the automatic accusation used whenever anyone challenges the establishment in any form.

King is now memorialized by the national holiday, and the King Memorial in Washington DC makes him also a national figure of massive proportions, as he was in life.

One has to wonder what King would have been like, had he survived until today at the age of 84.

Would his contributions have been greater, and would civil rights have advanced further than it has since his death?

Would he have become a factor in future elections in a way that might have changed the course of history?

What would have been his effect on the prosecution of the Vietnam War under Richard Nixon?

How would he have reacted to Jimmy Carter as the first Southern President since Zachary Taylor in 1848?

How would the Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II Presidencies have interacted with him, assuming everything politically would have been the same?

And finally, how would King have reacted to Barack Obama and his leadership in the Presidency?

Would American foreign policy and domestic policy have been influenced much by a live Martin Luther King, Jr?

All of this is speculative, but it is clear the nation lost a great deal with King’s untimely death in 1968!

April A Particularly Historic Month In America’s Past

Ronald 4 Comments

The month of April is a particularly historic month in America’s past in so many ways, with 20 significant events listed below.

April 2, 1917—President Woodrow Wilson asks the Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Turks.

April 4, 1968—The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 6, 1917—Congress votes for entrance into World War I against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Turks.

April 9, 1865—General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, marking the official end of the Civil War.

April 12, 1861—The Civil War begins, with the South Carolina attack on the federal military fort, Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

April 12, 1945—President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia, and Harry Truman becomes President.

April 13, 1743—President Thomas Jefferson is born in Virginia.

April 14, 1865—President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC, dying the next morning at 722 AM

April 17, 1961—A failed attempt to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro failed, coming to be known as the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and helped to lead to the later Cuban Missile Crisis, the greatest challenge faced by President John F. Kennedy.

April 18, 1775—The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, inspiring the first armed uprising against British oppression, occurred.

April 18, 1906—The highly destructive San Francisco Earthquake occurred, destroying much of the city, and killing 4,000 people.

April 19, 1775—The American Revolution began, with the Battle of Lexington and Concord outside Boston, Massachusetts.

April 19, 1993—The Waco, Texas tragedy of the death of 82 people in the Branch Davidian religious compound, consumed by fire, after an intervention by armored vehicles and federal agents occurred, inspiring conspiracy theories which led to the event below.

April 19, 1995—The worst domestic terrorist act in American history occurred, when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building, killing 168 people and wounding about a thousand others.

April 20, 1914—The Ludlow Massacre of miners by company hired National Guardsmen, killing 19 people, occurred in Colorado over a desire for recognition of the United Mine Workers for the coal miners.

April 20, 1999—The Columbine Massacre in Littleton, Colorado, led to the worst mass shooting of students and teachers in public schools until the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut.

April 21, 1836— The Battle of San Jacinto near Houston, Texas, led to the victory of Texans led by Sam Houston over the Mexican army of General Santa Anna, leading to Texas Independence.

April 22, 1994—President Richard Nixon dies at the age of 81.

April 24, 1800—The national library of America, the Library of Congress, is established in Washington, DC.

April 30, 1789—George Washington is inaugurated as the first American President at Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan.

Centennial Of Rosa Parks’ Birth

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Today is the centennial of the birth of Rosa Parks, an ordinary African American woman who changed the course of history, when she was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white patron.

What Rosa Parks did sparked the true development of the civil rights movement in America, after many false starts and earlier Supreme Court decisions had failed to bring about enough public attention.

The courage and determination of Rosa Parks helped to bring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. into public attention, as he led the Montgomery bus boycott, which began the fight against segregation in all public places, and led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 eight and a half years later.

Parks was memorialized upon her death in 2005, and given the honor of having her body lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, and a statue of Parks was commissioned for the Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

So on the centennial of her birth, this is a moment to celebrate in the long struggle for human freedom and dignity in America!

Two Historic Anniversaries And The Presidential Inauguration

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150 years ago on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

50 years ago, on August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr delivered the “I Have A Dream” speech.

50 years later, on January 20 privately, and January 21 publicly, Barack Obama is taking the oath of office for his second term as President, the product of what Lincoln and King did!

This is, indeed, a very historic time in so many ways!

Public Inauguration Of President Obama On Martin Luther King Jr. Day On Monday

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The public inauguration of President Obama will be held at 12 Noon on Monday, January 21, which is also the day we celebrate the life and heritage of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A King Bible and an Abraham Lincoln Bible will be used to bring together the strands of the American past, connecting what Lincoln did–issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and working for the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which freed the slaves; and King’s leadership of the civil rights movement—both events the forerunner of the election and reelection of our first African American President of the United States, a major plus for the American image in the world.

It is expected that those who have come to celebrate the inauguration will number about half of the 1.8 million people, including this author, who attended in 2009.

This time, the author is watching on television from the comfort of his family room!

The Huffington Post Commemorates POLITICAL ANIMALS Series By Having Readers Vote On Leading “Political Animals”!

Ronald 2 Comments

Ariana Huffington, the owner of the Huffington Post website, has decided to commemorate the POLITICAL ANIMALS limited cable series on USA Network, starring Sigourney Weaver, as a Hillary Clinton type character, by having a contest among readers as to the top “Political Animals” in American history.

A total of 50 figures of the past and present are included in this “Political Animals” listing.

Let’s look at the list in detail:

The Presidents of the United States listed include: Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton–a total of 10 out of the 50.

African Americans are represented by Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr;, Harriet Tubman, Shirley Chisholm, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Huey Newton, and Dorothy Height–a total of 9 out of 50.

Women mentioned, other than those listed above include: Hillary Clinton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Harris (Mother Jones), Sandra Day O’Connor, Susan B.Anthony, Dolores Huerta, Frances Perkins, Nancy Pelosi, Margaret Sanger, Emma Goldman, and Gloria Steinem–a total of 11 out of 50.

From the Supreme Court comes Earl Warren and John Roberts, along with Sandra Day O’Connor.

We also have, from the business world, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan, and Charles and David Koch (the infamous Koch Brothers).

From the labor world, we have Jimmy Hoffa and Cesar Chavez.

Political operatives include Mark Hanna (connected to William McKinley), James Carville (connected to Bill Clinton), and Karl Rove (connected to George W. Bush).

We also have Presidential candidates or possibilities as follows: Barry Goldwater, Huey Long, Robert La Follette Sr,, William Jennings Bryan, and Eugene Debs.

The final five are gay activist Harvey Milk, Vice President Dick Cheney, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (father of JFK), and newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst.

This is a very varied list, with plenty of controversy, as to who is on the list, and who has been left off.

There are many ways to rate or rank who are the greatest “Political Animals’, but certainly Presidents would have to be seen as having the edge in a broad sense. although not monopolizing completely.

The author, if pushed to pick the top ten from this list, and not adding others, would conclude as follows in order from Number One to Number Ten, and welcomes debate and discussion by readers:

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Lyndon B. Johnson
Earl Warren
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Robert La Follette Sr.
Thomas Jefferson
Hillary Clinton

As an aside, if the author could add people to the list created by the Huffington Post, he would add the following:

Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
John Marshall
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
John C. Calhoun
John Quincy Adams
Carl Schurz
George Norris
Woodrow Wilson
Louis Brandeis
Sam Rayburn
Harry Truman
William Brennan
Nelson Rockefeller
Hubert H. Humphrey
Bob Dole
Ted Kennedy
Thomas “Tip” O’Neill

Again, debate and discussion is welcome!

An Inspiring Moment: Barack Obama At Henry Ford Museum Sitting In Rosa Parks Montgomery Bus

Ronald 2 Comments

Yesterday, while campaigning in Michigan, President Barack Obama visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, and sat in the seat of the bus that Rosa Parks sat in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the opening salvo of the civil rights movement in America!

It brought back the courage and principle of Rosa Parks, who was arrested, leading to the year long boycott led by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who came from Atlanta, Georgia at age 26 to promote the cause.

This was one of the best photo opportunities involving President Obama in three years plus in public office, and it reminds us that the battle for civil rights is a never ending battle with no final victories, and requires our determination and stubbornness to make progress in the direction of human rights!

What The Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate Revealed

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Last night’s Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential debate revealed a lot about the Republican Party and about South Carolina, none of it good!

It demonstrated that the Republican Party is willing to live the past–a past of racial discrimination, denial of the right to vote, talk of secession veiled in the term “states rights”, willingness to condemn the poor in the name of veiled code words, and to promote a radical right wing extremism that would promote prejudice, and a “them” versus “us” mentality.

It also demonstrated that the Republicans have no intention of trying to avoid war, when war is possible, by their tough stand against diplomacy, and their veiled threats against Iran, even with the knowledge that America was bankrupted by Iraq and Afghanistan, and the American people wish to avoid further foreign conflicts.

The audience was very outside the norms, by booing Ron Paul over foreign policy; cheering Newt Gingrich with his racial political appeal to a group of obvious Dixiecrat types who would have voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948; being supportive of Rick Perry in his claim that the national government is attacking the rights of the people of South Carolina and Texas; and the general disrespect to refuse to honor the memory of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on the national holiday which they were against from the beginning.

Nothing has changed in South Carolina, which started the Civil War; was one of the most viciously racist states in the era of segregation; and has demonstrated no concern for its large poverty stricken population, a majority of it white, although the image is left that they are all African American.

South Carolina remains one of the most backward states in many different statistical areas, but after all, they have their beliefs in their Christian faith, totally distorting the message of Jesus Christ!

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial: Celebration Of A Pathbreaking Leader!

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Today is the birthday of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who would have been 83 years old today, had he lived. The celebration of his life will be tomorrow, a national holiday.

One has to wonder about the impact of this man, had he not been shot down in hate on April 4, 1968, at the young age of 39.

With the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial opening this past October, this is the first birthday of King that tourists in Washington D.C. can commemorate his life by visiting the site.

In a time of division and turmoil, King’s message of love and unity and compassion for others less fortunate rings out as a message of hope for the future, if we can just overcome our differences and see each other as Americans with the right to equality of opportunity, rather than just promote the interests of an elite class of wealthy who control power and policy over American society!

Birthday Of The Most Misunderstood And Underappreciated Founding Father: Alexander Hamilton!

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On this day, January 11, in either 1755 or 1757, depending on which historical records one believes, Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies.

Hamilton went on to a life of success, migrating to the American colonies, serving George Washington in the American Revolution, being a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, becoming President Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury, founding the first political party (the Federalists), and promoting what has become the “liberal” interpretation of the Constitution (although it was termed “conservative” at the time).

Hamilton was always controversial, outspoken, opinionated, egotistical, and had so called “skeletons in his closet” regarding his financial and love lives.

But he saved the country during its early years under George Washington with his policies of paying off the national and state debts. He developed the broad interpretation of the Constitution, utilized later by Chief Justice John Marshall and the Supreme Court in the doctrine of “judicial review”. He developed the US Mint; the US Coast Guard; emphasized the importance of manufacturing and industry in the American economy alongside agriculture; started the Bank of New York; and developed the oldest continually published newspaper in America, the New York Post.

Hamilton would be tragically killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in an infamous gun duel in New Jersey in the summer of 1804, dying at the young age of 47 or 49, and remains one of the tragic losses of a young politico, alongside John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. among others.

It is hard to imagine how America would have evolved without the contributions of Alexander Hamilton!