[Peace-discuss] Fw: [socialistdiscussion] Remembering Martin Luther King

[David Johnson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Reimann 
To: socialist discussion 
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 9:09 AM
Subject: [socialistdiscussion] Remembering Martin Luther King


  
I posted the following to our web site:

Today is the day set aside to remember Dr. Martin Luther King. But while we're remembering him, let's not forget that he wasn't always the celebrated official icon of nice words and non-violence that he is today. I remember the liberal white Southerner who complained to me that "he shouts at me". (I told her that he didn't shout at me.) I remember how he was condemned for mobilizing teen agers in the struggle against racism. I remember how he was attacked for being "impatient". Or how he was condemned for coming out against the Vietnam War. We should also realize that originally he didn't see "non-violence" as an absolute principle; that was pushed upon him by the Northern liberals in the person of Bayard Rustin (who wasn't above working with the CIA in another instance). In fact, according to Charles Sims, founder of the armed self-defense group the Deacons for Defense of Justice, King allowed himself to be guarded by the Deacons when he traveled in their area of southern Louisiana. According to Sims, King would not have survived in that area without that protection. 

But most of all, we should remember the many, many thousands, and tens of thousands, of unsung heroes - those who sacrificed their jobs, their homes, sometimes their lives - whom Martin Luther King helped mobilize. He helped raise them to a higher level and they, in turn, elevated him to become the great figure that he was. As is always the case, the names of these many tens of thousands of unsung heroes will never be recorded in history. They are just remembered - sometimes unconsciously - by the millions of workers and the oppressed and their spirit will rise again. 

Remembering them and their spirit, and helping resurrect a similar struggle - that is the best tribute we can make to Martin Luther King today.

-- 
"Poems don't belong to those who write them; they belong to those who need them" - from movie "Il Postino"
Check out:
http://www.iww.org/en/blog/1411
http://worldwidesocialist.net/blog/



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