January 16, 2006
MLK Day Link Round-Up
"Does progressive action come with that spirituality?" (Leigh E. Schmidt says Yes):
A good sense of the continuing moral and political import of this American vocabulary of the spirit comes from Barack Obama, the recently elected Democratic senator from Illinois. Obama has said that, despite the results of the 2004 election, it “shouldn’t be hard” to reconnect progressive politics with religious vision: “Martin Luther King did it. The abolitionists did it. Dorothy Day did it. . . . We don’t have to start from scratch.”
Perhaps Obama’s most telling remark came in his observations about his mother’s faith: “My mother saw religion as an impediment to broader values, like tolerance and racial inclusivity. She remembered churchgoing folks who also called people nigger. But she was a deeply spiritual person, and when I moved to Chicago and worked with church-based community organizations, I kept hearing her values expressed.” Obama’s invocation of “spiritual” as an inclusive term, inextricably interwoven with the “broader values” of American democracy, is important and carefully chosen diction. It not only conjures up Whitman’s ghost but also suggests some of the poet’s own audacity. As a concept of consequence in American culture, spirituality was born of the romantic aspirations and ethical passions of Emersonians, Whitmanites, and other religious liberals. Its history is worth recovering from the heap of critical commentary, as both a counterweight to the Religious Right and a resource for the Left (which is now so often tone-deaf on spiritual matters).
"I don't wanna wait in vain..." (But why I am, perhaps, anyway):
The legacy of King has become so twisted that more white Republican conservatives spout "I Have Dream" and "We Must Be Judged, Not By The Color of Our Skin But, By The Content of Our Character" than socially conscious African Americans seeking to realize the achievement of King's "Promised Land." King "reasoning" has become King "rhetoric" as hostile forces use King's name, likeness, intellect and legacy to shift the social construct toward race neutrality and away from social justice. By using "King-isms" to deflect the same arguments for racial and social equality King made in his last two books, Why We Can't Wait and Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (two books I read during every King week to not get caught up in all the "dream talk"), America was able to stop King's revolution of conscience right in its tracks. They took our focus off achieving equality, or reaching a "promised land," and put it on celebrating a holiday - in rhetorical ways that suggest that they too believe in King's "dream" of a colorblind society. Yet, colorblindness has become a barrier to discussion about what made the King phenomenon: racial inequality and social injustice. The desire to be a "colorblind society" called a halt to the discourse on race in America. Without being able to talk about race, you can’t talk about racial disparities, thus you can’t address racial inequities. But, we all profess to believe in the doctrine of King. Not really.
"I'll have a double" (...dose of MLK on NPR, that is):
Martin Luther King, 'At Canaan's Edge'
In Taylor Branch's history At Canaan's Edge, Martin Luther King Jr. is a citizen of his time. The Alabama peace marches; the Watts riots of 1965; the Vietnam conflict that dominated the late '60s -- King dealt with them all....
At Canaan's Edge begins in Selma, Ala. -- just before a bloody confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Sunday, March 7, 1965, between state troopers and marchers on their way to petition Gov. George Wallace for the right of black people to vote. The book ends in 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where King was shot and killed.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- and to fellow civil rights icon Rosa Parks -- with inspirational music and readings. The glee clubs of Morehouse and Spelman colleges also lend their voices to the annual celebration.
"Stevie, take it to the bridge":
You know it doesn't make much sense
There ought to be a law against
Anyone who takes offense
At a day in your celebration
‘Cause we all know in our minds
That there ought to be a time
That we can set aside
To show just how much we love you
And I'm sure you would agree
It couldn't fit more perfectly
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
I just never understood
How a man who died for good
Could not have a day that would
Be set aside for his recognition
Because it should never be
Just because some cannot see
The dream as clear as he
that they should make it become an illusion
And we all know everything
That he stood for time will bring
For in peace our hearts will sing
Thanks to Martin Luther King...
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