Socialist Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech Indicted American Imperialism, Racism, Materialism and Capitalism. One Year Later To The Day, He'd Be Killed. The FBI Killed Him 50 Years Ago Today.
Just did a quick look to see if there's anything on King here on this momentous day.
I'm a little surprised, and don't have the time to properly write something up. But I will say that in his transformation from civil rights leader/Nobel Peace Prize winner to critic of American Empire and capitalism, there haven't been many more potent, high profile figures to have had the courage to deliver such a speech. I could write, talk, read about, and especially listen to him all day - and today is that day. But I just don't have the time these days.
Much of the American public, of course, still have no idea about these radical views. They prefer what Cornel West calls the "Santa Claus-ification" of him. And never forget, at the time the FBI killed him, he was despised by a majority of Americans, even black folks. We have an ugly penchant for falsifying, sanitizing and "deodorizing" (as West put) this great man's lives for hegemonic political purposes, and also of course, to quell dissenters from fomenting coalitions. But we do have Freedom Of Speech and To Assemble To Petition One's Gov't With Grievances, or something. Heh...
I've got nothing else. Except the desire for this great place to mull over and espouse the revolutionary vision of King's fearless critique of the American Lie. His words, actions, vision, ethos are of the highest order - and something we could really use now.
"Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break The Silence" was a public turning point from which there was turning back. He could not reconcile any longer the killing in Vietnam with the racism at home. Many of his close supporters abandoned him after this, and the lapdog press cheering on the war crucified him.
Read it in its entirety.
Or if you prefer, listen to it:
Comments
The 'Murican Empire sanitized him
They went and turned him into just another facet of the long running Horatio Alger myth that continues to dominate what passes for culture in 'Murica. And far too many accept it.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Sanitizing King & JFK
Paul Street has a good analysis that makes your point about rewriting MLK's radical legacy and sanitizing JFK:
Against False Conflation: MLK, JFK and The Triple Evils
JFK was an Obama Neoliberal:
And a bloodthirsty military hawk:
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Yup. Look no further than the Bay of Pigs.
Eisenhower planned it but JFK ultimately tried to have Castro overthrown in order to bring back Batista and the oppressive landlords in the US Empire's bid to re-colonize Cuba for the capitalists. And that's not counting the numerous assassination attempts.
Marxists.org: The Bay of Pigs Incident
Not only that, but countries like Cuba, China and the Soviet Union are often demonized as anti-gun by Gundamentalists despite the fact that those countries kept working folks armed and well trained. The difference is the rest of the world doesn't fetishize guns the way we do.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
No one is as bad as Obama.
Trump and Bush have ignorant asshole branded on their foreheads. Obama is a Trojan Horse and liar. He has zero excuse for being the total slime he is.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Ayup. Camelot wasn't as rosy as we thought
I think I glorified JFK because I was 5 when he was shot and then the mood of the country set my opinion on his presidency. I didn't know anything about politics or why he was shot and then I "learned" that he was killed because he wanted to "break the FBI into a thousand pieces."
Street merged your essay with a new one that he wrote after JFK Jr's ridiculous state of the union rebuttal.
Joe Kennedy III, a False Progressive Idol Like JFK
One thing is for sure. MLK's war on poverty is still ongoing and it has a long way to go. The guys who marched with King sold out after his death. John Lewis is the biggest sellout because he still has people believing that he is part of the King legacy. The things he said about Bernie proves that to me. What has he accomplished during his long tenure?
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
On the other hand,
there is substantial evidence that by the time that mid-to-late 1963 had rolled around, JFK had evolved on many of his previous positions. For example, he wanted to get us out of Viet Nam, and he was making public noises about peacefully co-existing with the USSR and ending the Cold War.
Remember, it was JFK that was the only cool head that prevented WWIII from breaking out during the Cuban Missile crisis, and who reached out to the Russians to avoid war. Also, there's substantial evidence that JFK wanted Patrice Lamumba to succeed in the Congo, but that he was thwarted by Allen Dulles' CIA as early as 1961.
The point is, JFK's record was not either black or white. But yes, it was a whole lot whiter than Obama's (no pun intended.)
If all JFK did
was get us into space
and onto the moon he accomplished a helluva lot.
Few have done as much in eight years as he accomplished in less than three.
I suspect he was killed for conduct unbecoming a lemming, taking his "power" WAY to seriously, and treating Deep State and TPTB like so much dog$h!t stuck to the bottom of his shoe. "Well, I guess we'll have to show HIM, now, won't we!" Beltway Insiders didn't take any more kindly to the arrogant Kennedys than they did the George Wallaces from The South.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Sanitizing of MLK, Jr.
in January 2012, Dr. Cornel West came to Tallahassee Florida for a paid speaking engagement at FSU on the subject of Dr. Martin Luther King. Prior to his speech at FSU, Dr. West stopped by Occupy Tallahassee to meet with us and talk to us.
I was so lucky to be able to see Dr. West speak and to talk to him afterwards, and especially to get a hug from this wonderful and very humanistic man. I can say nothing negative about the Cornel West I met that day.
Here is a clip of his speech to Occupy Tallahassee. Go to the 5:30 mark in this video where he addresses Dr. Martin Luther King. And yes, that is a much heavier me in the background in the light blue turtleneck. Ugh!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM26YA_Ucv0&t=2s]
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Man, I've never seen Cornel when he's been anything short of
electrifying.
Thanks for the video GG. Looks like one of those familiar Occupy gatherings that make make you feel warm and leave feeling so connected.
I've also never seen him and not been deeply edified, or learned something new about some historical perspective or a dissident I hadn't heard of, or seen a new way of looking at a situation. He's a poet, a performer, a pastor, a prophet. I've also met him a few times and gotten that warm hug and salute from him. A rare and deeply inspiring person. Just a sheer joy to be around and listen to.
Sometimes, when I need a lift, I'll just look up his speeches and reconnect to myself.
This blew me away. Have you seen it?
Started to write up an essay it was so moving and edifying.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Present!
So now we know how you got that sig line, "I don't want to run the empire, I want to bring it down!" You were there!
I don't think there's much doubt left, at least for me, about
this guy not being the real thing:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Reverend Barber
is the closest human being to walk in the footsteps of Dr. King.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
A Genuine American Hero
A reminder from In These Times that we are still fighting the same battle against racism, poverty and militarism:
50 Years On, King’s Fight Against Racism and Poverty Remains Our Fight
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Slapping together some of the better stuff from Twitter
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Thank you, Mark for posting the tweets
It shows us how much we lost when he was killed.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Lee Camp's video - Don't miss it.
Lee Camp's interview with William Pepper, author of The Plot to Kill King was full of information I'd never before heard. I urge all to watch it. It's 30 minutes you won't regret. William Pepper was James Earl Ray's attorney ... and much more.
I was most astounded at the end of the interview when William Pepper states that it was not even the shooter's bullet that killed Martin Luther King.
Lee Camp's been doing such great work, stuff nobody touches.
His show seems to be picking up momentum too lately, with what seems like bigger audiences for the tapings. He deserves that and so much more. Fearless, unlike those cheap, sellout Neoliberal comedians raking in the big bucks on late night tv protecting the Rich.
Think I saw that interview. Will check it out when I can. I've heard Pepper interviewed on WBAI, maybe on Guns & Butter with Bonnie Faulkner.
Thanks for highlighting that.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Hey, thanks for that...
I'm currently reading (slowly) john a. powell's book "Racing to Justice"--'transforming our conceptions of self and other to build an inclusive society'.
I heard him talk recently at a local event and bought his book. It's good. And I mean, really really good.
And a word of warning though: he is a law professor who has the appetite and ability to write as a combination of a professor of law, history and philosophy. It is dense, and I'm devouring it. But, like a great dessert, my brain can only take so much at a time.
We have had a void for 50 years.
No one has stepped up. No one has come forward. Except, perhaps, Bernie Sanders, who was quashed.
We need leaders - REAL leaders. It has been 50 years. Still waiting.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Many thought empty was the man
but he was not only spineless but also gutless.
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Coward.
But, we knew that about Obummer.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
A summary of my history with Hopey-Changey
In 2004, not knowing who he was, but heeding the call of Howard Dean's "Democracy for America," I contributed $50.00 to Barry's Senate campaign. As of that time, I still naively believed that the Democratic Party could be taken over by "better" Democrats.
In 2006, Obama (or one of his operatives) made two appearances on DailyKos. Bascially, the gist of his message was this: "We should try to get along with and work with the Republicans, and not be angry, antagonistic or obstructionist just for the sake of being partisan, antagonistic, or obstructionist." Basically, it was the Obama campaign trying out its "bipartisan/work with the other side" shtick. Needless to say, he got lambasted by many in the comments that followed these posts. (Remember, this was at the height of Bush Administration outrages, and here Obama was lecturing us that we basically should all get along, and dismissing any just cause we had for our anger at the Bush/GOP regime and at Democratic Party capitulations to/colusions with their crimes and outrages). At that moment, a little voice inside me told me that Obama was just another bullshit artist politico, who was positioning himself for a run for the Presidency, and was floating trial balloons as to the type or rhetoric and packaging he was going to be using in that run.
I watched as Obama, for four years in the Senate, chose the execrable Joe Lieberman as his mentor while keeping his head low and not taking any risky or controversial positions in the Senate--including not opposing any of Dubya's nominees to positions that required Senate approval.
By early 2007-08, however, I was telling myself (against my earlier better judgment) that Obama's earlier "bipartisan" rhetoric that I had found so offensive and insulting, was an understandable marketing strategy for selling himself to the general electorate in such a way as to NOT come off too angry or alienating. Thus, I decided to ignore my earlier inner voice and judgment about him, and I rationalized away my inner "bullshit detector." (And after all, I knew that Clinton was far, far worse. At least Obama, I reasoned, might be more accountable to the "little people" that had fueled his campaign online with so many small donations.)
However, in the summer of 2008, when the Congress gave the telecomms retroactive immunity to lawsuits by way of ammendments to the FISA laws, Obama went back on a public promise he had earlier made to oppose such a move, and did nothing as the bipartisan Senate relieved U.S. corporations of liability for violations of Americans' lawfully protected privacy rights. At about that moment, a Kos commentator called "Toquedeville" wrote an insightful essay in which he explained Obama's flip flop as proof that there was an unelected American oligarchy Obama had to kow-tow to if he wanted to become President, and that Obama was ultimately owned by them.
Needless to say, I didn't disagree with this thesis.
When Obama made Biden his running mate, I understood that he was letting the establishment know that they had no need to worry--Obama would always be heedful of what the Democratic/political establishment and insiders desired. In other words, he was assuring them that he was one of them and would always be with them.
In the general election that year, by that time understanding that Obama was a gutless, neoliberal sell out, but convincing myself that McCain was the worse of two evils, I held my nose and voted for Obama.
(On inauguration day 2009, when the country was shedding tears of joy over the election of its first black president (one of the few truly noteworthy accomplishments of Obama's entire political career), and the new era of hope and change this was supposedly going to bring the country, I yawned as I watched the TV coverage. By that time, I pretty much knew what he was.)
Within three months of his inauguration, as I watched his various political and cabinet appointments and saw him abandon just about every campaign promise he had either explicitly or implicitly made, I marveled to myself that in all my years of life, I had never seen an elected politician abandon or go back on so many of his campaign promises so quickly. Obama was setting a new standard for betrayal and perfidy, even beyond that of Bill Clinton in 1993. At that point, I swore to myself that Obama's 2008 election was the LAST TIME I would ever again vote for the "lesser of two evils" . . . or, for that matter, for any Democrat.
So, after inauguration day, the only things that surprised me were the degree, speed, breadth, and intensity of his political betrayals.
And yet, I watched in amusement and disgust as for at least the next two years, people on GOS and other bastions of so-called "liberalism" made excuses for him, or minimized his betrayals, or engaged in ridiculous mental contortions to get themselves and others to maintain their faith in this smooth-talking charlatan . . . in spite of the EVIDENCE THAT WAS AS CLEAR AS DAY THAT they had been had by this "community organizer," "constitutional scholar," "eleven-dimensional-chess-player," and "heroic first black president."
By 2010, I had more contempt for Obama as a human being, than I had ever had for Dubya. Why? Because Dubya was an idiot and one could argue that he was being manipulated by smarter players . . .and I never had believed him anyway. Obama, on the other hand, was a smart one and he KNEW BETTER and knew exactly what he was doing in conning so many people.
Barack Obama: A smart, smooth-talking, but ultimately morally vacuous excuse for a human being. The very epitome of the term "sociopath."
Perfectly said and totally agree about zero being
much worse than dubya, at least with dubya you didnt
get fooled twice. -g-
Uncle Tom always comes to mind with empty suit.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
And yet, if anyone called Barry an "Uncle Tom" at TOP . . .
. . . they were lambasted as being "racist," (as if the idiots and liars at TOP even have any real appreciation for what the word "racist" really means.) Thus, that term was made off limits for describing Obama . . . even though it was 100% apropos.
(Even thinking about TOP makes my guts turn. What a disgusting cesspool of deception, principle-less partisan politics, avarice, manipulation, opportunism, and overall idiocy that place is. However, it does warm my heart to see how much Commandante Moulitsas' site rankings on Alexa have dropped since his "inhale Hillary's farts and love them or else" edict of 2016.)
Soylent,
what a great summation. Your comment is worth keeping on hand for future point-making by anyone wanting to bring back the memory of that time.
I actually voted for Obama twice, the first time because for me John McCain was the devil incarnate and the second time because Romney was abominable. But never again, and I think that's what Michael Moore meant when he said the vote for Trump could be seen as a Molotov cocktail thrown at the whole establishment.
Thank you for making this point so well.
Oh, Mark,
thank you. I listened to the speech as you posted it, and it is breathtaking.
I think it's not just this speech, so focused on Vietnam in so much detail, but other of his speeches that are exquisitely focused on human rights and passionately courageous, that are ignored because they are powerful.
Taylor Branch's incredibly comprehensive, daily accounts
of his life behind the scenes and its context within local, national and world events is staggering to contemplate.
I often think of how intense his daily life was, how little he rested, how much he was hunted, how much he was challenged for his own beliefs, navigating the high profile status of an internationally known civil rights leader, who sacrificed what could have been an easy life welcomed into the upper middles class professional world.
What a writer, orator, indomitable spirit, fearless warrior of truth, with a great sense of humor, playfulness and unshakeable love for humanity including his enemies. His life endlessly captivates and fascinates me. "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" is one of many favorites of his speeches.
His true revolutionary legacy has to be reclaimed. I think a lot of folks, including many young ones, are having epiphanies lately, especially in this climate of anger towards an unjust and corrupt system, that he is not what they thought and is instead such a radical leader of whom to aspire.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
This could apply to Assange too
I often think of how intense his daily life was, how little he rested, how much he was hunted, how much he was challenged for his own beliefs, navigating the high profile status of an internationally known civil rights leader, who sacrificed what could have been an easy life welcomed into the upper middles class professional world.
The price Julian has paid for truth is very high. He has been locked in the embassy now for over 5 years or more away from his family and kids just because he is committed to the truth about the heinous actions of the world's governments. His health, physical and mental is degrading and now they have isolated him even more. His legacy is that he paid a very high price for the truth.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
MLK, Reverend Barber, Obama and
the torturers in Abu Ghraib and Guantanmo make Jimmy Dore a serious
comedian,talking host-head, who is courageous and doesn't hide painful facts.[video:https://youtu.be/jnY5raUfjq4]
Listen to what the tortured victim said inside his segment of his show.
And I know I am the last person here who is still not bashing Obama totally, and that's because I still could imagine he was intimidated by the security apparatus. So, I would see Obama as someone, who had no courage and was a coward, when he didn't have to be. He was commander in chief as a President and should not have to be that weak as to be intimidate-able. That is real bitter. And I remember though I was conned by Obama too, my son totally dropped Obama out of his mind, when he understood, Obama didn't do anything to close Guantanamo and hold the torturers accountable. I wonder how fair or unfair my previous hesitation was to not openly bash Obama. I remember many Afro-Americans being very afraid, Obama could have been 'assassinated, ie murdered and killed by the US security powers, if he spoke in ways that would make him sound "to be too black" so to speak.
Sigh.
Ron Placone in the Jimmy Dore video above quoted someone saying:
"When you are neutral, you are siding with the oppressor".
I was wondering about that too. Is that so?
That would mean all Germans but a very few sided with Hitler by staying silent out of fear and intimidation. I don't think my mother sided with Hitler, nor did her father, (though her sister and brother definitely did and both til they died - fucking unbelievable - but that's what it was). Not only that, they (my mom and Germans in general) were also confused. I remember the intimidation the SS in the church during a sermon of Martin Niemoeller in Berlin-Dahlem's St Anne's church had on my mother, who was 13-14 years old back then and was confirmed in his parish as a Lutheran Protestant. SS folks in the back of the church, while Niemoeller tried to speak up, was a trauma my mother hadn't forgotten.
The first time she told us about that incidence in the church in Berlin-Dahlem, was when she was over 80 years old. She was still scared and Martin Niemoellers' words didn't help the way he would have wished and intended. (about Martin Niemoeller during the 1930-ies look here . It is clear that Martin Niemoeller was an ambiguous pastor for many, but it's hard to know how to judge him.
PS I remember the discussions about an event (Moral Mondays?) dailykos had with Reverend Barber and it caused a brouhaha among the commentators. That was some years ago. I didn't understand it back then, what it was all about and what actually was going on, but I remember how and what people commented back then in the thread to that story, triggered me to leave dailykos.
I won't search for it. I am glad if I can leave it behind and forget. By the grace of God I am grateful he gave us a mind that forgets. It's necessary and sanity-saving some times.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Haunting video of the Guantanomo Bay prisoner. Jimmy Dore
is also doing the work that the venal American press won't, as fellow comedian Lee Camp does. Thanks mimi.
And thanks for sharing your family story and about Martin Neimoller's church.
I remember the broad strokes of that whole convoluted brouhaha at TOP over an alleged notice from some Dem Party official to disinvite Bernie supporters or something to a Rev Barber march. It was just one more episode of the $hills operatives sabotaging Bernie's campaign. Regional Bernie person Niko House talks about the shenanigans here (can't recall of he goes into the Barber march thing):
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
thank you, that is telling ... and for me so hard to
(edit spelling mistake)
to understand.
I hear always Lee Camp and Jimmy Dore and truthdig's many writers and find them clarifying lots of confusion I have in my mind.
Here is one, which isn't totally in relation to the past sabotage of the Bernie campaign, but it is as telling what doesn't work, because of the Bill Clinton's legislation way back in 1996. (TC 5:15). Sinclair's local TV stations monopoly turning the local TV anchors into hostages and "soldiers in Trump's war on the media" (TC 2:53). It is really difficult to understand all of it in hindsight for me and I am always unsure what to think. I just have my guts and sixth sense to trust and they tell me that Lee Camp and Jimmy Dore are a-okay.
[video:https://youtu.be/ltkSbwouLEI]
Especially difficult, because I can't watch US TV anymore here in Germany (not that I have been that fond of it back in the days when I still could).
Unfortunately I find myself overwhelmed, confused and frustrated, when I read here during the morning hours of the day and in the evening I watch German TV discussions about the same issues. I wanna give up some times. I would never understand the Catalonian Puigdemont's nightmare, which happens just an hour car drive away from where I live. It's pretty complicated. German TV news in this case are useful to me because it goes into the legal details, which I probably wouldn't understand if I listened or read it in English.
Something like this doesn't make it easier:
Catalonia mass graves: Victims of civil war exhumed
Many victims of the Spanish Civil War and the rule of General Franco were buried anonymously in mass graves, but a team of archaeologists is trying to identify some of the bodies and inform relatives of their fate.
Sigh this isn't over yet. And it's painful to follow. As you can read here.
German prosecutors request Puigdemont's extradition to Spain
Catalonia's former leader has been in detention for almost 10 days after he was arrested on a European arrest warrant.
Thanks for your essay and videos. I always appreciate anyone's efforts to make things clear and therefore I come back here to this place regularly. Have a good Thursday over where you are.
https://www.euronews.com/live
"I can't watch US TV anymore here in Germany"
You aren't missing much.
These days, I pretty much only watch or read American corporate media in order to see what the current propaganda-of-the-moment is that the powers-that-be want me to swallow.
public awareness
Wonder if any of the corporate story tellers on the tube will make mention of this sad occasion?
Pathetic Broadcast System
Newshour managed to fulfill their "tribute" obligation without a single word about Vietnam, war, militarism, the monetary profits or the social fallout from such. I only tuned in to see that they wouldn't.
PBS Newshour Foundation and Individual Funders
#1 - S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
There are over 50 more funders, and I'm sure a few don't have strings attached.
"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh
Great point, Jorogo.
A systemic silencing, by omission, which is the Protectors of the Status Quo's specialty.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
thank you for memorializing this day.
i'd add this book excerpt that mr. wd turned me on to, and may i say that MLKs having foretold his own assassination...almost made believe in god.
‘Martin Luther King's last 31 hours: the story of his final prophetic speech; On the eve of his assassination, King delivered an improvised masterpiece, ‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop’. In it, the civil rights leader foresaw his own death.', the guardian
it's touching almost beyond tears, with fine historical photos. Rest in Power forever, Dr. King.
Thanks for the recommendation, wendy.
Will look out for that book.
Whenever I think of that night when he gave his final speech, which by the way was during one of the worst relentless downpours of thunderous rain, it oddly sends a cold shiver while at the same time provides great solace. It's weird.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
May I recommend "Orders to Kill" by William Pepper?
A very good debunking of the official story as well as reconstruction of what really happened with the King assassination and who all was involved. In fact, many years ago, I saw a live presentation in person wherein Pepper presented many of the witnesses quoted in his book, and upon whose accounts Pepper's book rests, as they, one-by-one, told the assembled audience the bits and pieces of the story that the official version left out.
I have always thought it ironic and telling that the nation's supposed premiere law enforcement agency--the FBI--spent years officially denying the existence of the Mafia and organized crime, while at the same time spending all of their time spying upon and disrupting the lives and activities of people they thought of as dissidents and subversives (including Dr. King). It seems to me that the FBI functioned as more of a "secret state police/security" apparatus, as opposed to an actual law enforcement agency that protected the public from criminals.
I wonder if things are too different today.
Finally, someone upthread talked about Obama being a coward in his refusal to put himself in a position in which he might be assassinated.
See, the difference between King and Obama was that King had a genuine Christian faith (he alluded to it in his speech, "A Time to Break Silence")--however flawed it may have been--that allowed him to face his own death and martyrdom for the sake of truth and justice, and believe that something better lay beyond the grave. In fact, it's pretty clear that during the last weeks of his life, he strongly suspected that he was going to be assassinated, and yet he pressed on with his mission, undeterred by fear. (King said it himself in one of his last speeches: "I fear NO man" and "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord.")
Contrast that with Obama, who's only real "faith" lies in money, power, prestige, and his own ego--all things which will fail him when his final hour on earth comes. It's like that line from "Syrianna" where Mark Strong's character accuses Clooney's American CIA character of being nothing more than a cynic and a nihilist.
I know Malcom X had a lot of criticisms of him
Malcolm X thought MLK's working within the system was pointless and "by any means necessary" was the only way to get something done. Then he had his epiphany and I think came around to greatly appreciating MLK prior to his own assassination by the Nation of Islam. Here's an interesting video of a debate between Malcom X and MLK:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4PqLKWuwyU]
Beware the bullshit factories.