I Miss Martin Luther King

[PoliTalker]

Today is the anniversary of MLK's death.

It was a sad day for the United States of America.

The assassination was a set-back for race relations in America, which are still strained to this day.

I had hope that President Obama, as the first black president, would use his bully pulpit to further the work of MLK, but sadly he was not interested in doing so, and let the monumental opportunity pass.

Worse yet, his election energized hate groups across the nation and reignited racial animosity.

How will the USA ever overcome racial tensions and discrimination?

Shall we overcome?

[katzgar]

Your concerns require a great deal of perspective. I have always figured that Obama couldnt be seen as the president of black America only so had to walk a fine line. Much of todays racism is from boomers and they are fading fast. Each generation improves on the last and our youth are much less racist than their elders. I know of no objective way to measure racism but I can say there is no way black stars like Denzel Washington or Will Smith would have happened 50 years ago.

[Joe Capitalist]

Today is the anniversary of MLK's death.

It was a sad day for the United States of America.

The assassination was a set-back for race relations in America, which are still strained to this day.

I had hope that President Obama, as the first black president, would use his bully pulpit to further the work of MLK, but sadly he was not interested in doing so, and let the monumental opportunity pass.

Worse yet, his election energized hate groups across the nation and reignited racial animosity.

How will the USA ever overcome racial tensions and discrimination?

Shall we overcome?

He was a great man and American. He belongs in the circle with William Wallace, Ghandi, Nelson Mandella and all others who stand for peace, justice and the rights of the oppressed.

BTW, I see at the top of this thread, it says:

Members banned from this thread: Yurt, USFREEDOM911, Havana Moon, PostmodernProphet, Truth Detector, I Love America, Teflon Don, Dark Soul, Felonia von Pantsuit, CFM, Ralph, Yaya, Eagle Eye, countryboy, The Ugly Truth and BodyDouble

How do you ban individual posters from a thread? I want to try that to keep the scum, fake news and overall bullshit from posting on my messages.

[tsuke]

" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I agree with this so much.

[Guno צְבִי]

And he was murdered while fighting for workers on strike in memphis

Martin Luther King Jr. fought for more than civil rights. This was the protest less remembered

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...113-story.html

[Guno צְבִי]

[ThatOwlWoman]

Your concerns require a great deal of perspective. I have always figured that Obama couldnt be seen as the president of black America only so had to walk a fine line. Much of todays racism is from boomers and they are fading fast. Each generation improves on the last and our youth are much less racist than their elders. I know of no objective way to measure racism but I can say there is no way black stars like Denzel Washington or Will Smith would have happened 50 years ago.

Or that a movie starring a black super hero and black cast would become a blockbuster. Things *are* getting better but progress is far slower than Dr. King might have hoped for had he lived.

[Guno צְבִי]

Martin Luther King Jr. stood for revolutionary transformation; he is used today to support policies that he fought against

[ThatOwlWoman]

He was a great man and American. He belongs in the circle with William Wallace, Ghandi, Nelson Mandella and all others who stand for peace, justice and the rights of the oppressed.

BTW, I see at the top of this thread, it says:

Members banned from this thread: Yurt, USFREEDOM911, Havana Moon, PostmodernProphet, Truth Detector, I Love America, Teflon Don, Dark Soul, Felonia von Pantsuit, CFM, Ralph, Yaya, Eagle Eye, countryboy, The Ugly Truth and BodyDouble

How do you ban individual posters from a thread? I want to try that to keep the scum, fake news and overall bullshit from posting on my messages.

When you create the new thread there is an option to ban certain ppl. PoliTalker chose wisely in this thread by preventing the worst racists from strewing their garbage all over it.

[katzgar]

Or that a movie starring a black super hero and black cast would become a blockbuster. Things *are* getting better but progress is far slower than Dr. King might have hoped for had he lived.

I agree, It seems to be a progressively generational thing

[PoliTalker]

Hello DonaldvoTrumpovich,

He was a great man and American. He belongs in the circle with William Wallace, Ghandi, Nelson Mandella and all others who stand for peace, justice and the rights of the oppressed.

Yes, and it is sad he is not around today to continue his work. It is also sad that no one else has been able to capture his baton and carry it forward.

BTW, I see at the top of this thread, it says:

Members banned from this thread: Yurt, USFREEDOM911, Havana Moon, PostmodernProphet, Truth Detector, I Love America, Teflon Don, Dark Soul, Felonia von Pantsuit, CFM, Ralph, Yaya, Eagle Eye, countryboy, The Ugly Truth and BodyDouble

How do you ban individual posters from a thread? I want to try that to keep the scum, fake news and overall bullshit from posting on my messages.

When you are creating a thread, you have one and only one opportunity to ban posters. After you post your thread, you cannot edit your ban list. Look under the window in which you enter the text of your Opening Post. There, you will see a window entitled "Ban From Thread:". Enter the names of the posters you wish to ban. If you wish to ban multiple posters, simply put a semicolon after each entry except the last.

[katzgar]

Martin Luther King Jr. stood for revolutionary transformation; he is used today to support policies that he fought against

Martin Luther King stood for the ideas that this nation was founded on

[PoliTalker]

Hello katzgar,

Your concerns require a great deal of perspective. I have always figured that Obama couldnt be seen as the president of black America only so had to walk a fine line. Much of todays racism is from boomers and they are fading fast. Each generation improves on the last and our youth are much less racist than their elders. I know of no objective way to measure racism but I can say there is no way black stars like Denzel Washington or Will Smith would have happened 50 years ago.

Dylan Roof.

[tsuke]

we need to make sure that color of skin is not a factor for decisions! Its what Martin Luther King Jr would want!

[PoliTalker]

Here is a general email sent out by Congressman John Lewis, who marched with MLK, and was nearly killed for it:

"Obama.org

Fifty years ago today, I was with Robert Kennedy in Indianapolis when we heard that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot and killed.

The leader of our movement for civil rights was gone, assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis.

And I believe something died in all of us that day. Something died in America.

But I've also always held the belief that what he left us — the way of hope, the way of peace, the way of love, a philosophy and discipline rooted in nonviolence — cannot be taken away. These things are eternal.

On Monday, I had the privilege of meeting with President Obama and a group of young men in Washington, D.C. for a My Brother's Keeper Alliance roundtable. Together, we commemorated the legacy of Dr. King, celebrated his life, and looked to the future.

I believe we can always do more to embody the teachings of Dr. King, not just on the anniversary of his death, but every day.

And young people are demonstrating that spirit to us. They are organizing and speaking up. They're marching. They're demanding more for themselves and their generation.

And so I had a message for the young folks I met with this week.

When I was growing up as a child in Alabama, I saw crosses that the Klan had put up. I saw signs that said "white" and "colored." There were places we couldn't go. The majority of African Americans could not participate in a democratic process in the South. We could not register to vote. And when I first came to Washington to go on the Freedom Rides in 1961, black people and white people couldn't be seated together on a Greyhound bus leaving this city.

When I got involved in the Civil Rights Movement as a young man, we'd sit in at restaurants. People would spit on us, put their cigarettes out on us, pour hot coffee down our backs. I was arrested 45 times in the 1960s. I was beaten, left bloody and unconscious.

But I never gave up. And today, you cannot give up.

That's what Dr. Martin Luther King can teach us today. His message is as important now as it was 50 years ago:

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Because of King and the actions of so many others, we brought those signs down. We earned the right to sit in those restaurants. We earned the right to vote.

Now, all across the South and all across America, there are elected officials who are people of color. In the recent elections in Virginia and around the country, more people of color and more women were elected to positions of power. They are African American, Latino, Asian American, Native American. Our country is a much better place — a much different place — in spite of all the setbacks and interruptions of progress.

Dr. King taught us to be brave, to be courageous, to be bold. I don't know where America would be, where many of us of color would be, were it not for him.

His legacy was to speak up, stand up. When you see that something isn't right or fair, you have to do something — you have to get in the way. Get into good trouble.

The young men I met with this week give me so much hope for our future."

—Congressman John Lewis "