Happy MLK Day!!!

ladysycamore · 01-21-2002, 12:30 PM

"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I
was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major
for peace. Say that I was a drum major for righteousness.
And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't
have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and
luxurious things in life to leave behind. But I just want to
leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.
If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer
somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he
is traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain."

Excerpted from "The Drum Major Instinct", a sermon by
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968. Available on CD and
print in A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great
Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

From The King Center website: http://www.thekingcenter.com

Undertoad · 01-21-2002, 03:29 PM

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

elSicomoro · 01-19-2003, 10:32 PM

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

MLK, Washington, DC, 1963

Forty years later, we still have a long way to go. But we're making progress on that dream.

warch · 01-19-2003, 11:01 PM

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

-letter from a Birmingham jail.

01-20-2003, 10:10 AM

Truly a great man. He is the one speaker of whom I can watch a video or listen to a speech and get chills every time. He is that effective. It's a damn shame he's not here anymore, but I hope that, through his death, his message is spread even further.

Griff · 01-20-2003, 10:16 AM

"Don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as His divine messianic force to be – a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America: 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power...'"

www.radioproject.org/sound/King10.mp3

warch · 01-20-2003, 12:25 PM

I'm having a powerful MLK weekend, The exhibition In the Spirit of Martin is up and running. The Excelsior Gospel Choir rocked the house yesterday. This is one of the best projects I've ever worked on.

tw · 01-21-2003, 10:36 PM

Funny how things change over time. The movies 'Wizard of Oz' and 'Its a Wonderful Life' were unsuccessful in their time. The former went through six directors and was considered a near disaster. These things only took on new perspective with age.

MLK's "I've got a dream" speech was not the powerful, landmark speech in mainstream America at that time. More well known, for example, was Wallace's speech in blocking the doorway when confronted by US Asst Attorney General. Another example, I strongly remember Howard Cosell's tirades against the injustice done to Cassius Clay on his ABC radio show "Speaking of Sports". MLK's speech was never really played in its entirity at that time. It was only over a decade later when I heard the speech in full that I suddenly appreciated what the man had said.

I do remember watching when evening TV was interrupted announcing King's murder. I distinctly remember what my next thought was. "All hell is going to break loose". I had absolutely no doubt about that. It was, I thought, the final straw and expected the worse. (We didn't know about our future with Nixon.) How many more assassination could one nation withstand. Then RFK was killed. Killing important people was business as usual then. We do live in a different time where killing is actually something not to be taken lightly. Your could be teenagers of different color in the same car - more than enough justification to be murdered - back then.

Today, many don't appreciate what was more important back then. Today many people forgot how much closer they supported the other side. I still have friends from those days who mock the idea of an MLK day - since back then, that would have probably been the majority opinion.

Griff · 01-22-2003, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by warch
I'm having a powerful MLK weekend, The exhibition In the Spirit of Martin is up and running. The Excelsior Gospel Choir rocked the house yesterday. This is one of the best projects I've ever worked on.

Tell us more!

"...teenagers of different color in the same car - more than enough justification to be murdered - back then." Good point tw.

warch · 01-22-2003, 12:18 PM

In the Spirit of Martin is a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian and includes a huge array of artwork- photos, posters, paintings,collage, sculpture, over 115 works. The show opened in Mpls (at the Weisman Art Museum) on Saturday and runs through April. Diverse artists from Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Norman Rockwell, Faith Ringgold, Andy Warhol.... The art shows the struggle, and the stories are amazingly told (my head is kind of spinning today because its my 11th day of work in a row kicking this thing off. I am running on adrenaline.) - slavery daguerotypes; images commemorating the Amistad; Emmett Till; ironic documentary images of post WWII segregation;Brown v Board; Little rock 9; Ruby Bridges; Montgomery bus boycott; Birmingham; 4 little girls; SNNC and Freedom Summer; Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner vs KKK; Kings assassination in Memphis; mourning. Powerful images from realistic to abstract. The diversity of images works well together. Iconic images- like the photo of Selma to Montgomery marchers carrying the flag (the opening used in the Eyes on the Prize film series), or the famous photo of the segregated water fountains are hung next to work inspired by and quoting those images. So there are rich comparisons. And the show does an important thing in bringing depth beyond the annual King soundbyte, looking at how his ideas play today. Some of the images the shine light on terrorism and human rights abuses are looking mighty fresh and powerful in 2003. Hereis link to a bit of info on the show.

warch · 01-22-2003, 03:41 PM

Here's even more info! (you axed for it)
The show will be traveling through 2004- next to Brooklyn, then Memphis, and Montgomery. The show is an outgrowth of this art book project. Easily 100 more images, plus essays and poetry.

Some of the cool related projects we've had include working to collect video interviews of local individuals that worked during the civil rights movement. One of the cofounders of SNCC lives here, local activists, freedom summer volunteers. 11 people total, now a great local historic resource.

Roger Wilkins came to give an opening talk, amazing man.

Just the positive energy of all involved has been inspiring (or inspired)- the kids and families taking on tough images and discussions.

elSicomoro · 01-18-2004, 10:08 PM

MLK would have turned 75 on January 15th.

40 years after the Civil Rights Act, I wonder what the Reverend would say about the progress of equality in the United States...

wolf · 01-18-2004, 10:10 PM

I think he would be appalled by the process of exclusion rather than inclusion that we've developed.

elSicomoro · 01-18-2004, 10:22 PM

Some will argue that. Others will argue that there is much more inclusion now than there was in 1964. And still others will ask, "Who is being excluded?"

Happy Monkey · 01-18-2004, 10:31 PM

Until recently, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were included in Lee Jackson King Day in Virginia. Apparently that caused a bit of a fuss, so they separated the holidays. Now Lee Jackson Day is the Friday before Martin Luther King Day, and state employees get a four day weekend.

01-21-2002, 12:30 PM	#1
ladysycamore "I may not always be perfect, but I'm always me." Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: In Sycamore's boxers Posts: 1,341	Happy MLK Day!!! "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. Say that I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things in life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he is traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain." Excerpted from "The Drum Major Instinct", a sermon by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968. Available on CD and print in A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. From The King Center website: http://www.thekingcenter.com __________________ "Freedom is not given. It is our right at birth. But there are some moments when it must be taken." ~Tagline from the movie "Amistad"~ "The Akan concept of Sankofa: In order to move forward we first have to take a step back. In other words, before we can be prepared for the future, we must comprehend the past." From "We Did It, They Hid It"

01-20-2003, 10:16 AM	#6
Griff still says videotape Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 26,813	"Don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as His divine messianic force to be – a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America: 'You are too arrogant! If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power...'" www.radioproject.org/sound/King10.mp3 __________________ If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you. - Louis D. Brandeis Last edited by Griff; 01-20-2003 at 10:22 AM.

01-20-2003, 12:25 PM	#7
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	I'm having a powerful MLK weekend, The exhibition In the Spirit of Martin is up and running. The Excelsior Gospel Choir rocked the house yesterday. This is one of the best projects I've ever worked on. Last edited by warch; 01-21-2003 at 10:10 AM.

01-21-2003, 10:36 PM	#8
tw Read? I only know how to write. Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 11,933	Funny how things change over time. The movies 'Wizard of Oz' and 'Its a Wonderful Life' were unsuccessful in their time. The former went through six directors and was considered a near disaster. These things only took on new perspective with age. MLK's "I've got a dream" speech was not the powerful, landmark speech in mainstream America at that time. More well known, for example, was Wallace's speech in blocking the doorway when confronted by US Asst Attorney General. Another example, I strongly remember Howard Cosell's tirades against the injustice done to Cassius Clay on his ABC radio show "Speaking of Sports". MLK's speech was never really played in its entirity at that time. It was only over a decade later when I heard the speech in full that I suddenly appreciated what the man had said. I do remember watching when evening TV was interrupted announcing King's murder. I distinctly remember what my next thought was. "All hell is going to break loose". I had absolutely no doubt about that. It was, I thought, the final straw and expected the worse. (We didn't know about our future with Nixon.) How many more assassination could one nation withstand. Then RFK was killed. Killing important people was business as usual then. We do live in a different time where killing is actually something not to be taken lightly. Your could be teenagers of different color in the same car - more than enough justification to be murdered - back then. Today, many don't appreciate what was more important back then. Today many people forgot how much closer they supported the other side. I still have friends from those days who mock the idea of an MLK day - since back then, that would have probably been the majority opinion. Last edited by tw; 01-21-2003 at 10:41 PM.

01-18-2004, 10:10 PM	#13
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	I think he would be appalled by the process of exclusion rather than inclusion that we've developed. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

01-21-2002, 03:29 PM	#2
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

01-19-2003, 10:32 PM	#3
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" MLK, Washington, DC, 1963 Forty years later, we still have a long way to go. But we're making progress on that dream.

01-19-2003, 11:01 PM	#4
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -letter from a Birmingham jail.

01-20-2003, 10:10 AM	#5
dave Guest Posts: n/a	Truly a great man. He is the one speaker of whom I can watch a video or listen to a speech and get chills every time. He is that effective. It's a damn shame he's not here anymore, but I hope that, through his death, his message is spread even further.

01-22-2003, 12:18 PM	#10
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	In the Spirit of Martin is a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian and includes a huge array of artwork- photos, posters, paintings,collage, sculpture, over 115 works. The show opened in Mpls (at the Weisman Art Museum) on Saturday and runs through April. Diverse artists from Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Norman Rockwell, Faith Ringgold, Andy Warhol.... The art shows the struggle, and the stories are amazingly told (my head is kind of spinning today because its my 11th day of work in a row kicking this thing off. I am running on adrenaline.) - slavery daguerotypes; images commemorating the Amistad; Emmett Till; ironic documentary images of post WWII segregation;Brown v Board; Little rock 9; Ruby Bridges; Montgomery bus boycott; Birmingham; 4 little girls; SNNC and Freedom Summer; Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner vs KKK; Kings assassination in Memphis; mourning. Powerful images from realistic to abstract. The diversity of images works well together. Iconic images- like the photo of Selma to Montgomery marchers carrying the flag (the opening used in the Eyes on the Prize film series), or the famous photo of the segregated water fountains are hung next to work inspired by and quoting those images. So there are rich comparisons. And the show does an important thing in bringing depth beyond the annual King soundbyte, looking at how his ideas play today. Some of the images the shine light on terrorism and human rights abuses are looking mighty fresh and powerful in 2003. Hereis link to a bit of info on the show.

01-22-2003, 03:41 PM	#11
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Here's even more info! (you axed for it) The show will be traveling through 2004- next to Brooklyn, then Memphis, and Montgomery. The show is an outgrowth of this art book project. Easily 100 more images, plus essays and poetry. Some of the cool related projects we've had include working to collect video interviews of local individuals that worked during the civil rights movement. One of the cofounders of SNCC lives here, local activists, freedom summer volunteers. 11 people total, now a great local historic resource. Roger Wilkins came to give an opening talk, amazing man. Just the positive energy of all involved has been inspiring (or inspired)- the kids and families taking on tough images and discussions.

01-18-2004, 10:08 PM	#12
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	MLK would have turned 75 on January 15th. 40 years after the Civil Rights Act, I wonder what the Reverend would say about the progress of equality in the United States...

01-18-2004, 10:22 PM	#14
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	Some will argue that. Others will argue that there is much more inclusion now than there was in 1964. And still others will ask, "Who is being excluded?"

01-18-2004, 10:31 PM	#15
Happy Monkey I think this line's mostly filler. Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: DC Posts: 13,575	Inclusion Until recently, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were included in Lee Jackson King Day in Virginia. Apparently that caused a bit of a fuss, so they separated the holidays. Now Lee Jackson Day is the Friday before Martin Luther King Day, and state employees get a four day weekend. __________________ _________________ \|...............\| We live in the nick of times. \| Len 17, Wid 3 \| \|_______________\| [pics]

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