Salute to Martin Luther King Jr - 40 Years on

Thanks so much for posting this Briscot. You might be interested in this MLK discussion too:

http://www.tbd.com/group/218/discussion/109431/view

Thank you for the interesting link LoraMa, but I consider this American icon/hero to be worthy of more than just being discussed in a cosy little group.

Metaphorically, I wanted to hoist his flag and see how many saluted it.

Sort of like Obama. I hope.

TheInquiringEye

Britscot--I was a kid in the segregationist South. With my parents, the word "nigger" was a generic desicription of people of African-American heritage, not a perjorative. Mama and Daddy grew up poor during the Depression, and they always felt sorry for black people, who were treated even more poorly than themselves.

When I was a kid, Daddy worked a construction crew. The "good white boys" were allowed to come to our front door to get paid every week. "Mean white boys" were paid at a nearby service station.

"Good colored boys" could come to our back door to pick up their pay, (per existing law) and "mean colored boys" met Daddy at a service station in "niggertown."

When I shattered an ankle and a Harvard-trained black orthopedic surgeon fixed it, Daddy was impressed: " A nigger doctor!", he exclaimed.

I can't explain to someone outside the South, or to someone who has been the victim of discrimination based on skin color, that what we would now call discrimination was not always based on malice and prejudice. At the time, it seemed the norm,, and people like Martin Luther King were regarded as "stirring up trouble."

I believe that the "I have a dream" speech is probably the greatest oration of the twentieth century. There was so much violence attached to his principle of non-violence that he must have been greatly burdened and distressed, but he kept going.

i read Coretta King's biography years ago. He (and she) knew he would die, and could only hope that his death would make a difference. It did, but nobody should assume that race does not continue to be a factor in America.

Britscothish highlander

I think the Nobel prize showed that geopolitical boundaries were crossed by MLK.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that"

"Nothing pains some people more than having to think"

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality"

"We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart"

"Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives"

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method of which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love"

"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love"

"If a man hasn't discovered something that he is willing to die for, he isn't fit to live"

Thank you Brit for opening up this great topic! What takes me aback is that we have to say "would the world have been ready?" What do you mean by world? Do you mean Western Europe and the areas of the world that were imperialized by Western Europe?

But taking that aside, yes I believe that MLK is a heroic figure. I think any individual or group who stands up to the status quo and the powers that be; who stands up to those who wish to hold them in subjugation; who faces fear with courage; who is willing to put themselves out there despite death threats from those who cannot handle sharing power; who works to make the world a better place by encouraging us to stand up for what is right rather than what is popular or politically correct..yes, yes, yes!! MLK is at the very level of heroism as those who stood up to the (sorry Brits) British empire and gained independence for the colonies. And at the risk of really being provocative he is at the level of heroism as a man who stood up to the Romans/Jewish priests and also lost his life!