Monday, January 16, 2006

ML King Day

You don't have to be black to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Turning Dr. King's words inward-- I can't be free to become who I want to be until he's free to become what he can be. His dream was greater than just a wish for peace between blacks and whites, it was about tolerance and about securing Constitutional guarantees for all. I often wonder how Dr. King could come down on the issue of gay marriage. Sadly, many of his surviving contemporaries from the pulpits of the 1960s have been cool to the idea of homosexual rights, or to equating them with their own struggle. Many, it seems, have also lost sight of the need to welcome people from outside our borders. I believe Dr. King's legacy is felt as much today in the battle for gay rights and for open borders as it is in the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans.

On King's birthday, I offer the words of a white guy who gets it-- Willie Nelson...

Livin' in the promised land
Our dreams are made of steel
The prayer of every man
Is to know how freedom feels
There is a winding road
Across the shifting sand
And room for everyone
Livin' in the promised land

2 Comments:

At 1:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here at Augustana, one of the Deans sparked somewhat of a controversy by suggesting via campus-wide email that MLK was assassinated by FBI's Cointelpro for his Black Nationalist tactics and sentiments during the last three years of his life.

After some net surfing, this all seems entirely likely?

Any thoughts, primo mío?

 
At 12:46 PM, Blogger CM said...

It seems unlikely to me. I don't know how you keep a secret like that for 38 years. But that being said, the only option left to the public when it isn't given access to FBI and CIA covert information is untamed speculation.

Without a doubt, the CIA was spying and eavesdropping on King, planting false stories, and engaging in other forms of intimidation.

 

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