To:

Zcom_simple
Home » Z Blogs » Paul Street's Blog » April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

Hello,

Blogs are a familiar feature on the internet - where users post content in an accumulating manner, with comments, and search options, etc. They facilitate expression and exploration, and via attached comments, also debate and synthesis.


Reading and
Navigating Blogs

Our blogs are quite powerful. Each writer can post, as is typically the case. Sustainers who have the option can also post, however. All Blogs appear in the blog system, and sometimes also in content boxes the top page of ZNet - and always via the left menu of the top page - and can be found via searches, etc.

Commenting on blogs follows the blogs, attached at the bottom, and blog comments, like all others, are also visible in many places that show comments including in the forum system. In addition, the entire blog system gathers content for everyone - but one can look at the accumulating content in many ways.

  • For example one can look at one writer's efforts - so one is seeing what is effectively a blog system for that one writer, or Sustainer.
  • One can also look at the content by topic, seeing blogs that are tagged as being about a certain topic - or place, as well. Thus, when doing that, it is a blog system about a topic, or a place, with many contributors.
  • One can look at only writer blogs, or only sustainer blogs, as well.
  • One can look at blogs for particular Groups, too.

All this is easily done using the left menu. Searches allow even more variables and refinements.


Creating Blog Posts

If you are a Sustainer with permission, and are logged in, you will see a link in the left menu for you to post a blog - and you can use that to post one, and then tag it various ways (such as with a topic or place, or a group tag), and once you do, it is in the system with you as the author.

You can also use the console button to the left to post a blog - anytime and from anywhere in the site, as long as you are logged in.

Meanwhile, enjoy the blogs - and, by the way, if you are a Free Member or a Sustainer with a ZSpace page, of course you can put one or more content boxes on it, pulling blog links of any sort you may want to filter for, for example, by you or by your friends or by others - and by topic, about places, for groups, etc.

Blogs

Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Paul Street's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/paulstreet
Bio:         Paul Street is an independent radical-democratic policy researcher, journalist, historian, and speaker based in Iowa City, Iowa, and Chicago, Illinois.&nbs... (More)

All Street Blogs

Recent Street Content

Znetarticle_icon ZNet Articles
Zmagarticle_icon ZMag Articles
Zcommentary_icon ZCommentaries
Zaudio_icon ZAudios
Zvideo_icon ZVideos
Zblogpost_icon Blog Posts
Zbook_icon Books

April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Paul Street at Apr 04, 2005

PDF Version

Printer Friendly Version
Change Text Size a- | A+
April 4th is emblazoned on my mind. It's the day in 1968 when Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot dead on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.... King was leading a poor- people's campaign for economic justice at the time of his assassination, which fulfilled the prophecy he made to film producer Abby Mann in 1966. On the recommendation of Harry Belafonte, Mann was planning to produce a movie about King's life. Mann asked King “how does it end?” King answered, “it ends with me getting killed.” As David Garrow notes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of King (Bearing the Cross, 1999), “Mann was taken aback. ‘I looked at him. He was smiling but he wasn't joking.'” Truth be told, King had good reasons to assume, as he commonly did, that his life would be cut short from the moment he arose to national prominence during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. The circumstances of his 1968 assassination are in dispute (replete with critiques of the “lone shooter” theory). I don't know enough about those circumstances to voice a conspiracy opinion, but I find it interesting that the imperial militarist JFK's killing became an instant and durable national obsession but the murky murder of America's greatest peace and justice activist (King) is a mild matter of historical reflection. Maybe Oliver Stone should do a movie about THAT assassination. As it happens (and a conspiracy theorist would like this), April 4th was also the day in 1967 that King went fully public with his strong criticism of the brutal American attack on Southeast Asia. In a speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, King merged the issues of empire and inequality by noting that his commitments to racial equality and social justice no longer permitted him to pull his punches on the Vietnam War. The war, King said, was “an enemy of the poor.” It exploited economically disadvantaged Americans both on the killing fields of empire and – by stealing federal resources for domestic social welfare – on the streets and in the hills of American poverty. “I knew,” King proclaimed, “that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettoes without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today – my own government.” His Christian convictions brought him, furthermore, to “allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism.” King's “reference group” (to use a sociological term) was the human race, not the United States. The Vietnamese, King mused, “must see Americans as strange liberators.” After noting America's earlier efforts to sustain French colonialism in post-WWII Vietnam and U.S. support for a brutal dictatorship there, King described some aspects of this “strange liberation.” “While the people read our leaflets” about “peace and democracy,” King noted, “they languish under our bombs and consider us – not their fellow Vietnamese – the real enemy….They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops….They wander into the hospitals, with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one ‘Vietcong'-inflicted injury…They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words about land reform? What do they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe….We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and thevillage. We have destroyed their land and their crops…We have supported the enemies of the peasants….What liberators!.” I'll leave contemporary analogies to others. After giving this speech, King was in “a buoyant mood” (Garrow). His opposition to the war (evident since at least 1965) was now completely in the open. King's Riverside speech was denounced by national newspaper editorialists, including those at the Washington Post and the New York Times. It aso received bitter criticism from much of the nation's civil rights “leadership,” including the board of the NAACP. King's sin? Merging the issues of domestic civil rights and social justice with the issues of empire and war. The peace and justice movements were supposed to be separate, the authorities counseled. Any combination of the two was a grave “tactical error.” It was a response that King expected. He was politely unimpressed. One year later, King's former conservative critics within and beyond the civil rights movement were fighting to be first in line to proclaim their grief.

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (37)

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Zhu, Tian at Apr 08, 2005 12:52 PM
“I bet you probably don't know that the Dalai Lama's inner circle and his Regent signed away Tibet's sovereignty (DL was 17 then)” I wasn't aware of that and I am always glad to be enlightened (no pun intended) on such matters. I will follow up the references. The point for me, though, in my admiration of the DL is his unceasing dedication to a non-violent solution. I am not in the ‘Living God' camp and don't believe in any pre-invasion Shangri-la either. Rather I think we all have to do what we can and certain leaders will inspire us in the face of injustice, thus the relevance of DL on this MLK thread. I think it is better to remember the ideals than the person, after all we are all subject to human fallibility (oh, except the Pope). To me the heart of most religion is liberation but like Communism when it becomes institutionalized its ideals are supplanted by common place struggles for power and position and the worship of the all too human. It's like the old koan “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 08, 2005 05:20 AM
Also, Paranti quoted some "fisrt hand accounts" in the 1960's reported by Western researchers. I think it would be naive to take these testimonies at face values when it wasn't uncommon in those days for people to fabricate stories to denounce friends and co workers just to avoid getting into troubles with the regime(Trumped up denuciations reached its climax during the cultural revolution but this phenomenon was pretty widespread even before)

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 08, 2005 04:50 AM
Chinese oppression in Tibet is exterme. In addition to torture and murder. They are carrying out a cultural genocide by forcibly sterilizing Tibetans on the one hand, and flooding Tibet with Chinese settlers on the other. It's fair to say the Tibetans are worse off than the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Now I have some problems with Paranti's arctle cited by Greame. One of Paranti's source was Anna Louise Strong. She was one of the most notorious Western China apologists along with Edgar Snow and Han Su yin. She was a hardline Stalinist to boot. The toruring devices she reported were artifacts in a Chinese run Tibetan museum. They were bought into Tibet by the Manchu conquerors during Emporeor Chein Lung's reign(sorry I don't know the date in Western calender, probably in the 1700's, the Manchurians then ruled Tibet until 1910, when the Manchurian dynasty was overthrown by the Nationalist. Tibet enjoyed a brief moment of independence,--actually it was more complicated,-- until the Chinese invaded, again, this time under the banner of communism)

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 08, 2005 04:42 AM
Don't get me wrong, I believe the Tibetans have the abolute right to self determination and that the Chinese occupation is unjust and brutal. But let's not get taken in by the Richard Gere verson of pre invasion Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Before the Chinese invasion Tibet was a feudal theocracy. The Dalai Lama claims to be the nth reincarnation of the Buddah and derives his power and privilege from such a claim. This alone is more BS that all the "Papal bulls" put together.Historically the Tibetian Lamas were known to be ferocious martial monks. Don't get me wrong, I believe the Tibetans have the abolute right to self determination and that the Chinese occupation is unjust and brutal. But let's not get taken in by the Richard Gere verson of pre invasion Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Before the Chinese invasion Tibet was a feudal theocracy. The Dalai Lama claims to be the nth reincarnation of the Buddah and derives his power and privilege from such a claim. This alone is more BS that all the "Papal bulls" put together.Historically the Tibetian Lamas were known to be ferocious martial monks. How oppressive was pre "liberation" Tibet is difficult to assess because of heavy propaganda from both sides. But I think it is likely true that the Tibetans are much worse off under Chinses rule.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 08, 2005 04:37 AM
"For me the DL is a 100 times the leader this last Pope ever was" I bet you probably don't know that the Dalai Lama's inner circle and his Regent signed away Tibet's sovereignty(DL was 17 then) The Tibetan elite signed a treaty with Mao renouncing Tibet's soverign claim in return for Chinese garantee that monks got to keep their land and privileges. This became moot when the Chinese tore up the agreement and kicked out the monks anyway after the invasion. When I worked at campus radio I did an interview with a local Tibetian activist. I bought up the question he simply brushed it aside and said that was old history.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Organum, Baby at Apr 07, 2005 20:22 PM
All religion, as well as all ideology is drenched in blood. Do not trust hierarchies- thats it ! Tibet was a tragedy , but not the only one. Leads to this question: Would the Chinese invade if USnavy had not stopped them from taking Taiwan ( The last nationalist bastion in china ) ?? Here religion is cool if it teaches forgiveness and we can look at the future possibilities in stead of wrong that need revenge. Both China and USA need to be forgiven to mAKE THEM understand that the trampled wont exact undue revenge along with cultural and economic reparitions.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Zhu, Tian at Apr 07, 2005 17:27 PM
Oops....to prevent any more egg on my face the Tibetan loss of life is actually estimated at 1.2 million (http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact1.html) (http://www.nfb.ca/whatremainsofus)I got mixed up with the total population of Tibetans. But it's still an enormous number....

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Sullivan, M. at Apr 07, 2005 17:16 PM
I always think of the Dalai Lama as the Pope of leftists. I think Buddhism is a spiritual practice that many academic leftists can gel with over western religions. However, the Dalai Lama is no angel. Didnt he own slaves when he was in his lavish homestead of Tibet, with the slaves position being justified by lower karmic rebirths (another religiously justified hierarchy and form of social control)?

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Zhu, Tian at Apr 07, 2005 17:07 PM
Anyway back to Martin Luther King, I am with cryofan, he totally rocked, and the establishemnt couldn't the rocking. I'm still waiting for Stevie Wonder's world party on the day he came to be. And instead we get the millions of people crying about the likes of the posh clothes horse Diana, Ronald McReagan and Pope PP ;-)

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Zhu, Tian at Apr 07, 2005 17:00 PM
You could look at the work the Dalai Lama has put into the Free Tibet movement. For me the DL is a 100 times the leader this last Pope ever was but you can be sure in the west his future passing will merit a couple lines in the press somewhere on page 10 and yet here is a man who has spent years promoting peace and non-violence. This example, of the interaction of Buddhism and politics, is a good one to show how religious beliefs can promote the ideals many in Znet would surely admire. Of course our wonderful Mr Blair was too busy to meet with the Dalai Lama when he last came to Britain to talk about the Chinese Invasion of Tibet. Funny how Blair and Bush haven't lost any sleep over the millions (one source puts it 6 million) of deaths from the Chinese genocide. No UN mandates here, no bombers over Beijing. Why could this be? I am new to Znet but I am now an avid reader and coming to terms with a feeling of opening my eyes from the slumber induced by the Capitalist interests. Sometimes I feel like Neo in the Matrix and I want to take the pill that will make me forget.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Cryofan, Cryofan at Apr 07, 2005 16:52 PM
MLK rocked, man. He just friggin' rocked. Back in the day--when I was listening to Rush Limbaugh--I took him for just another N*gger. But now that I have researched him and the history of America, I have to say that dude was one of the greats. He knew that we are only as good as we treat the lowest among us. I saw the tarpaper shacks myself when we toured the backroads of the South by car when I was a kid back in the early 70s, but I guess I just walled it off in my mind. Mental models, emotional investments, inherited subcultures, and all that... Now that MLK has, in a way, gone mainstream, if we could only get his REAL ideas (quasi socialist-marxist, really) onto TeeVee, we could do some real damage. Ain't nothing real in America until it gets some serious boob tube time.... Ah, well, I am including some of what MLK was all about in my low budget video documentary that I am currently working on. Zinn is a major source, BTW....

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Zhu, Tian at Apr 07, 2005 16:45 PM
I think religion has an enormous amount to offer and a valid part to play in our lives it could be used as a framework to guide our political ideas. I cannot understand any politician's insistence to divorce the two. I suppose it is because life would be too uncomfortable and their hypocrisy too obvious. I wonder how Bush and Blair square their Christian beliefs with Jesus words to love our enemies and even bless those who curse you. Turn the other cheek? No thanks I'll just murder civilians instead. No wonder Blair prefers to keep his religion quiet. It is a shame our leaders cannot get their heads round these simple truths. The problem is when religion becomes a part of the establishment and is twisted out of shape by vested interests of maintaining the status quo. Liberation theology is a wonderful example of the power of belief. I am not a Christian and far from it but for me Jesus and Che and Ghandi and Martin Luther King are people of the same mettle, and they were all murdered for standing up for the people. I would argue that the point to Jesus' mission was to free the people from the grasp of the abusive Jewish authorities. The turning over of the tables in the temple is a find example. It is such a shame that Christianity has become this hollow and disgusting shadow of its roots. Now all it does is to serve the interests of those who the radical Jesus sought to over throw.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Sullivan, M. at Apr 07, 2005 04:50 AM
Someone posted: "Religion is a farce. I hate to say it, but it truly is "the opium of the masses" And not just that, but with regards to Christianity and Judaism, among others, the masses are adhering to Stone Age religions, usually interpreted in a highly fundamentalist/authoritarian/backward sort of way that blinds people to the very real problems facing us at home and the world for that matter." Religion is not a farce, rather, it is a powerful social force. Nor is religion necessarily an opiate for the masses (although elites appropriate it to help legitimise their rule). Liberation theology has been used by many religious leftists as a powerful tool throughout history. To disregard that is to totally ignore the religious beliefs of Malcolm X, Romero, and King. I am now an atheist but I grew up in a Catholic church which contained several priests heavily involved in social issues. As a youth the liberation theology these priests preached was a great inspiration to me. To this day I am grateful to their teachings althhough I no longer believe in their metaphysics. I urge caution in dismissing religion out of hand due to its use by the masters. Religion can also be used in positive ways for social transformation.

Reply this comment

4101

By Servo, Tom at Apr 06, 2005 03:19 AM
"He did want to pull the troops out of Vietnam, that is what he ordered the military to do. " Not bad for a guy who won the presidency on a platform of (among other things) "The incumbent let the russkies build more missiles than us! The incumbent lost cuba!" Yeah, that's sounds just like the long lost verse from "kumbaya."

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Vekey, Tvekey at Apr 05, 2005 23:57 PM
Yes, the movie was a good one, but that is not my source. He did want to pull the troops out of Vietnam, that is what he ordered the military to do. We disagree on his responsibility for the Cuban Missile Crisis as well. Look, I realise that the notion of relating JFK with Dr. MLK is unpopular and since this blog is dedicated to the memory of Dr. MLK maybe it is not proper for me to press this issue further. Beside, there is so much can be said about Dr. MLK, his charisma, his leadership in non violent resistance, his eloquent speeches he has attracted a much wider following than would have been normaly expected. There was a 'bit of Gandhi in him. His memory is still alive, so does his dream, which still has not been fulfilled yet.

Reply this comment

Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Street, Paul at Apr 05, 2005 23:24 PM
The other thing both Garrow and I think Dyson do is tell the truth about his rampant sexual affairs combined with enforcement of strict "stay at home and raise children" dictates on Coretta Scott King. The weakest part of the King legacy is clearly around gender; the civil rights movemennt was plagued by extreme patriarchy, something that was not lost on black femal activists like Ella Baker and others.

Reply this comment

Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Street, Paul at Apr 05, 2005 23:20 PM
marcus denton yes I read most of the Dyson book; generally liked it. Helped rescue him from the attempts to make him into a symbol of social and racial accommodation, talking about his democratic socialism and his not generalluy understood understanding of some of the limits of integration and the logic of black separatism. Along with the Garrow biography you can read Dyson and get a good sense of King as in fact a militant and a leftist, willing to take positions unpopular with power.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Vekey, Tvekey at Apr 05, 2005 21:49 PM
correction; NSAM 263

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Vekey, Tvekey at Apr 05, 2005 21:46 PM
Joeblogs56; JFK signed on Oct.11 '63 National Security Action Memorandum 264 ordering 1000 military personel out of Vietnam, by Christmas that year and the remaining by the end of '65. By lack of space I can not go in detail, into the Cuban missile crisis, but it had been resolved peacefully, in no small part because of JFK, who -sometimes with difficulty- resisted the pressure from the hawkish military representatives of the Pentagon. You are right to mention Turkey in this connection as this was a secret backroom deal with the Soviets exactly to preserve the Peace. It goes without saying that decisions like these had crossed many powerful interests, who had decided to liquedate him, just as 5 years later Dr. MLK.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Organum, Baby at Apr 05, 2005 21:11 PM
Sometimes the world will be different around the corner. Not well advertised and all. Aesthetic facism sounds nice. No need to look without the comforting walls of academia anyway. Thats something to wish for, for christmas. Along with tall walls of paper and pensionplans. Then there are those with lifes you havent reaD ABOUT IN PAPER OR SEEN IN THE MOVIES OR DESTROYD BY SOCIAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELD EXCURSIONS. Tricky that. Better get back to the drawing board, or eat some pastries. Good luck in Newtopia children :-)

Reply this comment

4101

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Servo, Tom at Apr 05, 2005 14:34 PM
I think Paul should direct the "MLK" movie.... back and to the left..... back and to the left...King stepped back and moved to the left and began addressing the cause of inequality and racism not only here in the US, but elsewhere: greed in teh form of capitalism and governments which support the white wage-slave owning masters. As long as they could control him and convince him and his followers to focus their energy and anger into the ballot box, they knew he didn;t really pose a threat to the system of neo-colonial liberal capitalism. In the USA majority-rules, winner-takes-all system of electoral politics, racial minorities are *by definition* going to lose. So there are some minority representatives and one senator?? not to worry. The hundreds of white representatives and senators will serve to keep any resemblance of balance in check (checks and balances). King wasn;t killed because of integrated wash rooms at bus stations. He was killed because he questioned the white liberal capitalist power structure.

Reply this comment

4101

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Servo, Tom at Apr 05, 2005 14:23 PM
re the Harvard Sitkoff book: fantastic. buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut... were minorities really saying "hosannas in the streets" when the Brown v Board decision was announced?

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Organum, Baby at Apr 05, 2005 13:30 PM
Luckily , the research on human behaviour has reached a stage where levels of agression, sexual tension and preference, and key words can be introduced and the victim ( Might ) live happily ever after. Chemistry and psychological induction be blessed ! After all , the UFOs are our friends. Luckily I have a psychological diagnosis and can therefor not be trusted. The UFOs protect the holy blood that might reach as far back as to Anu. ( If subject is versed in stories that old ) If not the blood can reach back to J.C or any other place that fits description. Do you have alien blood ? Perhaps you are one of us ? Since secrecy is of outmost importance warnings will have to depend on dates and symbols commemorating a suitable marker. This would include deaths but any good showman should keep the audience guessing it must have been mere coincidense, that my two closest friends got mad during the same month. The one driving a ballpoint pen 10 cm into his ear because of the voices. The other believing he was a part of OBLs network. As a partygame. Why dont you try hypnosis with a twist. Leave out certain verbs and nouns and tell the subject to translate it into all possibilities. Multidimensional travel can be fun, and its allways nice to meet omniscient creatures. Do You Remember ! Have Fun !

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 05, 2005 07:45 AM
"He may have spoke out against them, but the fact remains that he spent much more time and had spent much more of his venom and his energies on things like abortion and same-sex marriage than issues of war, peace, empire and imperialism" Hey, no argument from me. just pointed out that he did oppose to the war. No one ever argued that the Pope was a radical.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Matrix4, Appleman at Apr 05, 2005 06:19 AM
"Or Pope poopy pants." Pope poopy pants??? LOL! Come on!

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Matrix4, Appleman at Apr 05, 2005 06:10 AM
"While I am no fan of the Catholic Church, but to be fair, JPII was vocal against both Gulf wars. He also spoke out against corporate greed at different points." He may have spoke out against them, but the fact remains that he spent much more time and had spent much more of his venom and his energies on things like abortion and same-sex marriage than issues of war, peace, empire and imperialism. "Incidentally, Cuba offically mourns the death of JPII for three days" Further proof that Cuba is quickly abandoning all pretensions of being remotely "socialist." First the US Dollar, and now the cheezy love-affiar with the Pope. Obviously, Castro has been opening up the religion valve (Pope meeting in Cuba, officially celebrating Christmas again, now this) as a way to defuse some of the anger that is against his regime. Castro has always been a political opportunist, first and foremost, not a radical, if the two happen to coincide fine, but "El Commandante's" religion is power.

Reply this comment

4101

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Servo, Tom at Apr 05, 2005 05:49 AM
I had 2234 more letters to type on teh subject, but I will say it as plainly as Rage Against the Machine said it:"He gave the power to the have-nots, and then came the shots." Fitting for MLK, unfitting for JFK. Or Pope poopy pants.

Reply this comment

4101

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Servo, Tom at Apr 05, 2005 05:31 AM
Random firings inside my (some woulkd say dead) brain: 1) the pope gave lip service to the anti-war movement in iraq, yet several times came here to whip the "liberal" american catholics into line over issues as condoms, gay sex and marriage, divorce, and church attendance (and church income). on the issue of pedarest priests, again, he found a way NOT to hold the Chucrh responsible: blame homosexuality, while ignoring the fact that the Church was under his control at the time the pederast (sp) priests were admitted into its ranks (anti-thetical to its own teachings), then shuffled around. Hegave lip service to the assasination of Archbishop Romero and the rape and murder of Nuns and lay workers in El Salvador (who by the way, were all murdered by troops trained in the USA on USA taxpayer dimes. I got in a heated argument with a "liberal" Catholic about the Pope. She kept saying that he made statements against the war. My response was "How often, and how vocal?." In any event, compare his crusade against the Crusade in Iraq with his crusade against safe sex and gay marriage. Which did he *really* care about? Beafraid. Be *very* afraid of any Pope beloved by the radical right wing neoklans.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 05, 2005 05:01 AM
"The Pope was a reactionary. Someone too busy fussing over condoms and gay marriages than thousands of people dying in a totally unnecessary war in Iraq" While I am no fan of the Catholic Church, but to be fair, JPII was vocal against both Gulf wars. He also spoke out against corporate greed at different points. Incidentally, Cuba offically mourns the death of JPII for three days.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Matrix4, Appleman at Apr 05, 2005 04:56 AM
Sorry for getting off subject there. As for the 60s, yea that was a great time in America. A very democratic time to say the least (thus the right-wing attacks on it) The Right loves the way we are now - a bunch of celebrity-obsessed, corporate lackeys coming home from our 9-5 job, getting brainwashed by our TV's and then becoming braindead cattle as we watch Survivor, MTV and football. Furthermore, I don't know if we will ever see another time like the 60s again. It seems more and more like that was the Left's Last Hurrah. Last great attempt at truly changing the world before the multinationals and the capitalists truly take over for good with clenched predatory jaws. When I see good men like Noam Chomsky having to go back to the 60s when asked about the progress of left social movement, I just shake my head in disgust. We have to go back 40 years in order to bring up great victories or great accomplisments of the Left. Very sad.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Matrix4, Appleman at Apr 05, 2005 04:49 AM
You know, I am just completely disgusted with our corporate media. This orgy of uncritical stories about famous people when they die is just ridiculous and gives people their "Necessary Illusions." Obsession over the Shiavo case, death of Reagan, death of the Pope...things that don't really matter. Yes, it's sad when anyone dies but it does not warrant round the clock, 24-7 news coverage that we are getting. Religion is a farce. I hate to say it, but it truly is "the opium of the masses" And not just that, but with regards to Christianity and Judaism, among others, the masses are adhering to Stone Age religions, usually interpreted in a highly fundamentalist/authoritarian/backward sort of way that blinds people to the very real problems facing us at home and the world for that matter. The Pope was a reactionary. Someone too busy fussing over condoms and gay marriages than thousands of people dying in a totally unnecessary war in Iraq. The Vatican ought to be disbanded and its wealth distributed to the people.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 05, 2005 02:58 AM
Joe At least the orgy of tributes to the Pope is not as morbid as the around the clock death watch that preceeds it. :(

Reply this comment

Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Street, Paul at Apr 05, 2005 02:38 AM
They constantly have to be forced into positive action by MLK and the great movement of which he was a part. Their main concern -- the key thing that moves them to act in some minimally decent ways to protect the struggle against southern apartheid and terrorism ---- is the public relations black eye that out of control southern white racism is giving the United States on the perceived global stage of the Cold War contest with the Soviet Union for Third World allegiances. And of course Bobby and Jack and their buddy J. Edgar are constantly wiretapping MLK and harassing him over alleged "Communist influences" (H. Levison and Jack O'Dell, both ex-CP) in the CRM. I'd say the social movement is the initiator by and large. On JFK and Vietnam, see Chomsky's little book, Rethinking Camelot. joeblogs the Chicago Tribune's front Sunday section gave something like 12 of its 15 pages to Popedeath 2005. I don't think I've seen one story given so much space in the Trib since 9/11. Maybe I'll go back to April 5, 1968 and see how much space King --- one of history's actual greats (and that's from someone who hates "great man" theories of history) ---- got in the same paper.

Reply this comment

Occupy_iowa_city_rally

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Street, Paul at Apr 05, 2005 02:35 AM
Take a look at a couple of books if you have time: Bruce Miroff, Pragmatic Illusions (a New Left political biography of JFK) and Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality ( a good short history of the civil rights movement). See also Howard Zinn's Peoples' History, and other stuff by Zinn (Postwar America, 1945-1971) and his book about SNCC. Then there's the PBS documetnary series (excellent) "Eyes on the Prize." These and other materials show the Kennedy's always trying to cover their ass with southern whites (who have voted Republican since Democratic presidents JFK and LBJ signed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts) and trying to get the civil rights movement to slow down and channel itself into safe activities like voter registration....

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Vekey, Tvekey at Apr 05, 2005 00:34 AM
The reason I put the Kennedys and MLK and Malcolm X 'in the same league' -as you put it, because I think one can initiate radical changes from both inside and outside of a social system. Although the Kennedys,- unlike MLK or Malcolm X -were part of the ruling elite, they tried to initiate changes within the system which had seriously effected key aspects of its workings. (Executive order 11110, Bay of Pigs etc.) True, that MLK was more the classic social radical as we are envisioning one, but since they all shared the same fate from the same opponents, I felt it was proper to draw a co-relation bettween them.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Gammon101, Bwong at Apr 04, 2005 23:50 PM
I don't know how you can put the Kennedys in the same league as Malcom X and MLK, Tvekey. Putting aside mythologies, it is difficult to characterize the Kennedys as someone who "challenged and posed danger to the system". People get assasinated for all sorts of reasons. Just because the Kenendys were shot didn't make them "martyrs" in the sense of MLK. For all we know, they could have been shot because they got mixed up with the Mafia, or they may have been victims of personal vendetta from some high level enemies.Of cousre we should not discount the obvious: they could have just been shot by mad men, like the guys who tried to kill Reagan or the Pope and almost succeeded.

Reply this comment

Person

Re: April 4th: The Day King Was Shot

By Vekey, Tvekey at Apr 04, 2005 23:22 PM
The martyrdom of MLK illustrates the length the entrenched hierarchies will go to defend their interest. The decade symbolicaly commenced with the dire warning of Pres. Eisenhoover about the menacing run away power of the military-industrial complex. Almost like he sensed it... All the leading personels who challenged and posed danger to the system, either from the inside, (the Kennedy-s) or from the outside (MLK or Malcolm X) and could not be bought or corrupted in any other way had been assasinated. Every one of these 'jobs' were done by professional teamworks of assasins, offering a disposable patsy as a diversion. The only positive thing I can think of this sad story, that the assasins and those behind them, had failed to kill the ideas of these brave men, indeed they unwittingly added to their glorious allure as tragic heroes. I hope that future generations will pick up this unfinished fight and usher it to its final resolve.

Reply this comment

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (37)

Loading_border