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Post by LostPeon™ on Jan 15, 2007 16:12:17 GMT -8
Just thought I'd point out that it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day for anyone who didn't know.
He was just such a powerful man with great ideas. I still can't believe anybody would ever had wanted to kill him.
Discuss.
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Post by tyrantisius on Jan 15, 2007 16:22:16 GMT -8
Of course people would want to kill him. They're called racists. And Americans.
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Post by Prone on Jan 15, 2007 19:18:47 GMT -8
Of course people would want to kill him. They're called racists. And Americans. I'll have to strongly disagree on that second one, although you were probably just joking around! Well someone who was a stunning leader in the civil rights movement, he sure did his job as an outstanding leader. He did not back down whatsoever, despite having his house burned to the ground. Some stupid white americans got angry, and one of them killed him for it. |
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Post by rabidgecko on Jan 15, 2007 19:52:17 GMT -8
... i dont get why you had to disagree with manifest....he never said king didnt do great things...
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Post by Prone on Jan 15, 2007 19:54:28 GMT -8
... i dont get why you had to disagree with manifest....he never said king didnt do great things... Ok make that the third thing, where he said americans. I knew he was joking though. |
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Post by tyrantisius on Jan 15, 2007 20:54:13 GMT -8
OMFG!
I'm not manifest.....
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Post by rabidgecko on Jan 15, 2007 21:09:54 GMT -8
f**k... you know what i meant, tyrant.. k i'll double check from now on when i say something about either of you  sorry |
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Post by porsche944s on Jan 26, 2007 20:21:38 GMT -8
Tyrant ---> Manifest
Not the slightest chance in hell. Anyways.
MLK was a good man, no doubt. The reason the people killed him is because his movement challenged their way of life. Slavery was abolished 100 years before Civil Rights, but the whites in the South still had the upper hand against blacks. They didn't want to lose this sense of superiority, even if it meant murder.
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Post by doom3x on Jan 26, 2007 21:26:52 GMT -8
I've pondered MLK quite a bit over the years. It's a disturbing part of human nature/behavior to need to "one up" someone. Part of the reason poor white Southerners were willing to fight and die for a system (slavery) in which they had no obvious part, not owning slaves themselves, was because it buttressed a social system where they could say "At least I'm not black." As part of a sense of dignity, that phrase "At least I'm not...(insert ethnic minority here)" is a powerful stimulant. It drives people to do amazing and atrocious things to preserve their position as anything but the bottom of the totem pole. I don't know where it comes from (I've experienced it myself at times), and I don't know how to banish it...but it's something everyone should consider once or twice. Why do we, as individuals, and as a species, feel the need to think "at least I'm not this group or that person."
The only thing I've come up with is that we really hate acknowledging our own faults as people and as species, and the ability to one up another individual is a convenient way to avoid that realization.
Incidentally, if you haven't, by some fluke, heard MLK's speech, in its entirety, I encourage you to find a way to listen to it. I've got it on my Itunes (with the original background noise of the Lincoln memorial crowd) and it's awe-inspiring. "I have a dream" is the best-remembered, but there's some other truly magnificent stuff in there.
"When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation America has given the Negro people a bad cheque; a cheque which has come back marked insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this nation."
Can anyone read or hear that passage without getting a shiver?
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Post by technohawk on Jan 26, 2007 23:39:52 GMT -8
I've watched the whole I have a dream speech(17 mins) and everytime I listen to it I get a feeling that humanity will be alright despite the horrors that have occurred throughout time. You can download the audio and video of the speech from the MLKonline site. The site doesn't have a complete length video of the "I have been to the mountaintop" speech, it cuts out early. For a short history the mountaintop speech was MLK's last speech(one day before he died). Watching the video you can see that Martin Luther King Jr. looks pained as he's speaking. His expression and his words (I may not get there with you) make it seem that MLK might have had a feeling he would die soon. What's not shown on the vid at this site is that after the speech MLK collapsed in a manner similar to someone being shot(he falls backwards, clutching his body) which was another ominous sign. Truly great man. Audio link www.mlkonline.net/sounds.htmlVideo Link www.mlkonline.net/video.html |
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sorry