A leader without followers…
It’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Some of you have the day off. Some march. Some go to fancy banquets and listen to stories of “back in the day” and many take for granted what King fought for.
More people don’t vote now, more than before King when people were blocked from voting. Call it apathy, call it indifference, but considering the effort that it took to change the system, the system hasn’t changed as much as King hoped.
And while King is celebrated today- many still don’t understand that at the time, he was still not recognized as a force of nature.
The beginning of the famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” began with an admission by King that “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.”
The sum total of his response 6,921 words. Of course, he was in jail and had time to write.
Fast forward to 2015- and if the civil rights movement were getting started today. If King put up 6921 words- he’d get TL/DR (too long didn’t read) by most.
And while his goal in most protests was to create imagery of many people marching, or to bait racist police chiefs into letting loose the dogs, hoping for headlines- media today wouldn’t work the same way. If civil rights wasn’t done then, it may not have happened, or set the groundwork for things to come like marriage equality.
The one thing that distinguished King from others, was his ability to attract followers- to have a herd to be heard. There were many detractors, but those core followers made the difference.
“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.”
He was challenged as an “outside agitator” by many. His response was clear “Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
The real question is who is going to lead the next clear battle in American Civil Rights- the one that will truly end poverty, end class inequity and bring back the ideals of “all men are created equal” and that they all have the opportunity to engage in the pursuit of life, liberty and the happiness that seems to be evading so many?
It’s time for people to take the time to read the long versions, it’s time for people to ask questions, and it’s time to find new leadership that isn’t beholden to the mighty dollar. The underlying causes of inequality are still here today.
We can celebrate King’s victories all we want, but, to think the battle has been won, is to kid yourself.
The message was judging one by ones character and not skin color. Whereas that continues to some extent on both sides it has little to do with ending poverty. It’s much deeper than that and we can’t expect government to solve this. Government only increased the problem.
@Ralph- if that’s all you think that MLK was about- your loss.
Poverty, from a society that places different values on people based on their skin color is still raging in this country.
Government can fix things- but not the government we have.
Well said, David. Problem is, the people who most need accurate, historical and in-depth information are not listening. Not sure how to fix that.
Sadly, many in 2 or 3 generations of people growing up have forgotten history, how to read and are advanced head smart but lack the basic core understanding of life. We now have technical advances of the computer age but have relied on it so much as it has caused problems as such as dependency on such an age of instant news, and information that in a lot of cases we are lost(not to say it is all bad); we have made some great strides to make life much easier (even to post this), but have lost the human touch to understand one another and listen to problems instead of communicating just from the computer screen with our instant messages that takes away our imagination to ponder and think things through as a society. We need patience and understanding and learning responsibility and respect from one another and our differences not hate no matter who we are. Thanks for reading. I hope it helps and feel free to elaborate to expand upon.
Liberals expect government to fix things – in our present failed example for the past 40 years it’s been pay offs at the expense of others. I’m the furthest thing from a racist and I share Kings dream – our government does not. It in fact imprisons people to a demeaning systematic way of failure and dependency that’s treasured by liberals for the control it offers them.
Unfortunately generations of black folks have feel into this snare by our government. You and agree on the the fact that our present government can’t fix it. Government must fix itself.
Tonight the president that the majority of my fellow Ohioans voted for will rally the tired Robin Hood message of taxing people how have already paid a lifetime of taxes to pay for more government programs. Instead of leading people (particularly African Americans) he only offers more of the same mantra.
Today’s well known “Black leaders” are not leaders, they are only takers. Until there is a return to the dream and continuing leadership away from disastrous government endeavors and a unity of black folks to live the way they are capable of by taking stock in their attributes, being proud of themselves, embracing family life (not hit and run fatherhood), and developing an endeavoring will things will remain solidly in control of the negative.
I have always viewed one character and not skin color. I realize there are those who don’t (on both sides of that fence). Character is one of the most important thing one can have. You can’t get it from government it is built by the things you do in life. Dr King understood this!!! I happen to agree strongly.
Platitudes and random, unsupported blanket statements are part of today’s problem of uneducated, uninformed Americans. Let’s take a few (FOX and even the MSM is full of them!) 1. “Liberals expect government to fix things.” Someone who isn’t liberal cannot speak for us. We expect government to SERVE the people…..and that means ALL the people, not just the wealthy and powerful. We can fix things ourselves once the playing field is leveled. Next year, projections are that the upper 1% (who do NOT work harder that the other 99% of human beings) will possess as much wealth as the other 99% combined. In what Universe is that just? 2. “I’m the furthest thing from a racist.” ………. yet refers at least twice to “black folks.” Not exactly a respectful, egalitarian title. 3. “Today’s black leaders ….. are not leaders, they are only takers.” Who says so? Proof? Facts? What have they taken? Platitudes dumb us all down to our lowest common denominator and we are capable of so much good that this kind of talk is disheartening. 4. “Government must fix itself.” What does this mean? How? After all, WE are ‘the government’ and it is up to each of us to try to improve society by making it a more just, compassionate, even-handed, benevolent place for all our citizens. 5. …”and a unity of black folks to live the way they are capable of by taking stock in their attributes, being proud of themselves, embracing family life (not hit and run fatherhood), and developing an endeavoring will things will (sic) remain solidly in control of the negative.” This whole statement is wrong on so many levels as it sweeps with a broad hand all people of color into the same group and just regurgitates ongoing propaganda. It is poverty, not color that is the more stable predictor of family cohesion and ‘endeavoring’. Poor white men are statistically more likely to “hit and run” as far as parenting goes, and pride and poverty just don’t go together well. Ensure that people have access to jobs that can support a family… Read more »
Thank you Marianne for attempting to straighten out Ralph. It’s probably a wasted effort- but, thank you.
Talk about wasted effort – you are the champ Ninja Boy!
…yeah, dear Ralph, the Mullahs and High Priests of liberalism are piling on. But that is because you had the temerity to attack their religion. And no doubt, liberalism is a religion because it carries the tenets of religion. The left has sacred texts (such as Das Kapital and Silent Spring). And you raised David’s ire, dear Ralph, when you failed to show sufficient reverence to Martin Luther King, one of liberalisms many martyrs and holy-men. But the real proof that liberalism is a religion is the adherents’ faith that their ideas that Big Government is the Almighty and there is no task on heaven on earth that behemoth government can’t fix. Did you catch, dear Ralph, El Presidente talking about healing the climate at the State of the Union hot-airathon Monday? Or the constant liberal insistance of their plans to wipe out such things as poverty and racism when millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of civilization have failed to do the same? Another solid liberal belief, dear Ralph, is tithing. But unlike the Koran’s suggestion of 10 percent or the Book of Mormon’s 15 percent, liberals call their tithes taxes, insist that even infidels pay them, and bitch that 40 percent of your annual income ain’t enough. This conveniently fulfills the liberal narrative that the reason we haven’t fixed such government failures as the rotten school system (which bears liberal fingerprints) is that we haven’t thrown enough money at the problem. Yessir, Ralph, liberalism is both religion and cult, and the sooner it gets thrown into the boneyard of failed ideas, the better…
@Ice Bandit, it is indeed amazing how quickly a liberal will resort to the their same old illogical rants when their distorted logic is threatened. I know of one who even dressed in a Ninja costume during a city commission meeting to get attention in a well documented ploy to “shake down” the city and put a few bucks in his own pocket. No wonder he or one of his minions objected when being reminded of shake down artists like Jackson and Sharpton. Liberals believe they carry the burden of caring for black lives since they consider them unable to care for themselves.
“the upper 1% (who do NOT work harder that the other 99% of human beings)”– MS
LOL. Mostly untrue. The vast majority of the top 1% are working stiffs just like the rest of us. They are doctors, lawyers, salespersons, and business executives. They don’t really get days off, when they are on vacation they still work, they travel a lot, work when at home with the family. In other words they work all the time. Companies pay them a lot of money and expect a lot in return or they will just find someone else to do the job. Sorry you are just plain wrong on that.
“AND perhaps, most pathetically, our taxes do not mostly go to supporting people; most of our hard earned tax money goes to, of all deplorable, unnecessary things……..WAR ……..and the defense budget, bloated corporate contractors who thrive on the death and mayhem it creates for innocents here and abroad. – MS
Wrong. Although I appreciate your sentiment on unnecessary military force, bloated corporate contractors and over the top spending the fact is that 35% of last year’s spending was on Social Security and Unemployment, 27% on Medicare & Health. 17% was military spending.
“After all, WE are ‘the government’ and it is up to each of us to try to improve society by making it a more just, compassionate, even-handed, benevolent place for all our citizens.” – MS
LOL!!!!! Yet we elect officials that run on platforms of the government GIVING us stuff for free….healthcare, college, jobs.