For MLK Day
It's been a very long time since I had an employer enlightened enough to give me Martin Luther King Day off. It probably stretches back to when there was no such holiday. And I'm not sure how much credit to be giving to those employing agencies who do grant the holiday, though, either. I doubt it is a Free Will sort of thing.
It reminds me of the account I heard today of the curmudgeonly municipal employee who fought tooth and nail the unionization of the city's employees, her hyper-conservative principles totally offended by this labor stuff. Of course she willingly accepted all the improved benefits and perks like extra holidays won by the organizers.
Sounds a lot like the party of elephantiasis, doesn't it? It's a rare case when, as I heard happened this week in Texas, they refused one of those government "hand-outs," while all the while whining about the tax-and-spend libruls. Sadly the Texas episode involved educational funds. They're probably trying to restore their reputation. I gather there are some in Texas embarrassed that their literacy rate is in the double figures these days. Of course the collective intelligence of the state was probably halved when Molly Ivins died.
But I liked the sentiments in this post:
"I agree with Dante that the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence is betrayal."
--the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., introducing this seminal sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, April 30, 1967
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
-- Dr. King, in his speech "A Time to Break Silence,"at Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967
We began Martin Luther King Day remembering MLK's tireless crusade to make a reality of the Declaration of Independence's insistence that it's a "self-evident truth" that "all men are created equal." Certainly this earned him more enemies of a die-hard hatred and dangerousness -- including, of course, our very own FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover -- than any one person should have to contend with.
As we end this day of remembrance, we mustn't forget that Dr. King's vision of social justice required him to take a stand that was enormously controversial even among his supporters: resolute opposition to the Vietnam war, which he understood guaranteed that money would not be available to undertake making the promise of real equal opportunity an actuality.
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) has made the same link between our misbegotten military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, which not only aren't enhancing but are undermining our national security and at the same time draining funds from the economy which are desperately needed for crucial elements of the progressive agenda. This week, honoring Dr. King, PDA is launching a venture called Brown Bag Lunch Vigils (BBLVs), an outgrowth of its "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign, to raise awareness among the public and our elected officials that the electorate is not being served by current U.S. policies."
-clip-
There is a great youtube of a seminal MLK anti-VN war speech at the start of the post that I heartily recommend.
And there is a good deal more on the MLK Brown Bag Vigils, which seem like an inspired idea.
It reminds me of the account I heard today of the curmudgeonly municipal employee who fought tooth and nail the unionization of the city's employees, her hyper-conservative principles totally offended by this labor stuff. Of course she willingly accepted all the improved benefits and perks like extra holidays won by the organizers.
Sounds a lot like the party of elephantiasis, doesn't it? It's a rare case when, as I heard happened this week in Texas, they refused one of those government "hand-outs," while all the while whining about the tax-and-spend libruls. Sadly the Texas episode involved educational funds. They're probably trying to restore their reputation. I gather there are some in Texas embarrassed that their literacy rate is in the double figures these days. Of course the collective intelligence of the state was probably halved when Molly Ivins died.
But I liked the sentiments in this post:
"I agree with Dante that the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence is betrayal."
--the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., introducing this seminal sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, April 30, 1967
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
-- Dr. King, in his speech "A Time to Break Silence,"at Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967
We began Martin Luther King Day remembering MLK's tireless crusade to make a reality of the Declaration of Independence's insistence that it's a "self-evident truth" that "all men are created equal." Certainly this earned him more enemies of a die-hard hatred and dangerousness -- including, of course, our very own FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover -- than any one person should have to contend with.
As we end this day of remembrance, we mustn't forget that Dr. King's vision of social justice required him to take a stand that was enormously controversial even among his supporters: resolute opposition to the Vietnam war, which he understood guaranteed that money would not be available to undertake making the promise of real equal opportunity an actuality.
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) has made the same link between our misbegotten military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, which not only aren't enhancing but are undermining our national security and at the same time draining funds from the economy which are desperately needed for crucial elements of the progressive agenda. This week, honoring Dr. King, PDA is launching a venture called Brown Bag Lunch Vigils (BBLVs), an outgrowth of its "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign, to raise awareness among the public and our elected officials that the electorate is not being served by current U.S. policies."
-clip-
There is a great youtube of a seminal MLK anti-VN war speech at the start of the post that I heartily recommend.
And there is a good deal more on the MLK Brown Bag Vigils, which seem like an inspired idea.
posted by Sir Gumbo at 10:30 PM
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