"I have been to the Mountaintop" Rest in Peace, Power and Love #MLKJr

This post is dedicated to the memory of # MartinLutherKing Jr., who was murdered in Memphis,Tn on this day in 1968

What you are reading on thise blog on this day.

Bummer, I'm Banned Again!

Awkward Anal's of American Politics on Labor Day

RedEyes version of how did we get here and where do we go from here.

What EYE am reading on this blog on this day.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

Welcome to my world, a very personal diary

Ain't gonna let nobody turn  us around

#RestoreTheVRA

#MartinLutherKing

EYE Shall Return

Update~Awkward Annal's of American Politics on Labor Day

As you can see from the comments I am being accused of "technically repeating libel/slander in regards to this post regarding the Romney Campaign slogan/them.  Although I don't agree with the premise or the argument , I am editing the post to read;

Did you know one of the themes/slogans adopted by the Romney campaign, "Keep America America" is a variation of  Keep America American, once a slogan of the Ku Klux Klan?  The question is did Team Romney know his campaign slogan was once used by the KKK?  Awkward.

It is being reported by the Huffington Post that Romney’s campaign slogan “Keep America American” was the driving theme of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The slogan was the rallying cry for groups seeking to intimidate and terrorize black, Jewish and gay people all throughout the United States.

That said, did Romney/Ryan technically repeat Libel/Slander when they said President Obama ended the work for welfare requirement?  Are the Birthers technically repeating Libel/Slander when they claim the President wasn't born in America, implying he is not an American?  I guess it depends on what the definition of technically repeating Libel/Slander IS, because it looks like the republicans can technically dish out Libel/Slander, but they can't take it.

The same genius who came up with the KKK slogan for Romney must be the same genius who thought the Alabama, Mississippi and Florida delegations  Democratic National Convention kickoff party should be held at Historic Rosedale Plantation in  Charlotte, North Carolina.   Oh well, at least it wasn't held in the slave quarters.

This photo of Historic Rosedale Plantation is courtesy of TripAdvisor


 How do they expect us to move forward when there is always something there to remind us?

Martin Luther King Jr spoke for workers and unions.  His last campaign was a labor fight.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord"

Today's Must Reads

Personal Memories of 43 Years Ago

The content of our character

Martin Luther King, Jr. Links I Like~link inserted

Happy 81st Birthday Dr. King

"Best Country in the World?"

Can't we do better than this?

I don't celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday  because it reminds me the reason he is not here on earth is because he was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee standing with striking sanitation workers.

The gop Presidential candidates chose this day to hold a debate in South Carolina of all places. I can't wait to see how many times they mention MLK, or not.

 Here is a preview.

Newt will try and tell the audience they didn't hear what they heard him say about black folks and food stamps.

Rick Santorum will deny he called black folks lazy .

Ron Paul won't be asked about the racist newsletters published in his name.

Willard "Mitt" Romney won't be asked about the curse of blackness and talk about how his father marched with Dr. King....or not.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day?

I think NOT.

"A Ball of confusion, that's what the world is today"

And the band played on.

The 3 Wings of the Republican Party: The Crazies, the Corporatists ... and Democrats
Democrats must endorse progressive principles again and hammer home the distinction between the party that cares about everyday Americans, not just the wealthy.

If Congress didn't impeach Bush and Dick for sending our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG Intelligence then they shouldn't be talking about impeaching President Obama for Libya. Just cut the funding for Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq and bring our troops and our tax dollars HOME.

Maybe they did kill the dream. Decades after King's assassination Memphis reignites labor struggle.

The plight of Memphis sanitation workers is still an emotional issue four decades after the strike, which was sparked by the death of two workers due to a faulty trash compactor. The strike developed into a rallying point for the African-American community in their struggle against the city's white establishment.

Racial overtones surfaced again in the privatization fight, which appeared suddenly last month. One councilman dismissed the 1968 struggle as belonging to another era. Another said privatization represented the next step of "change" for which King -- and President Obama -- fought, a suggestion that horrified civil-rights veterans.

The city faces a $60 million budget shortfall and council members are selling the privatization proposal with claims it could save about $18 million a year. Local media support the bid uncritically.

At the council meeting, a Firefighters official called for the city to restore a property tax worth $20 million a year, which was eliminated three years ago. He accused white council members of looking out for their gated communities and not the city as a whole.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (r. secessionist) is polishing off his Bats#it crazy credentials so he can join the rest of the Bats#it crazies.

White privilege and arrogance on full display. Watch Andrew Breitbart get confronted after he crashes Netroots Nation. H/T to the Beer Party for the video.

Keep an eye on this debate. The South Huntsville righty's are trying to convince themselves HUD (Housing and Urban Development) are a bunch of Thugs who are trying to *snicker* intimidate them because they exercised their first amendment and criticized the government. This is rich coming from a gang that bans speech they don't like. Oh well, you know what they say...it takes one to know one.

People moving out
People moving in
Why? Because of the color of their skin
Run, run, run, but you sure can't hide!

Personal Memories of 43 Years Ago

I remember the evening of April 4, 1968, like it was yesterday. I was in my bedroom doing my homework when I heard my mother scream "Oh My Lord No"! We ran to the living room and watched TV in horror.

I remember thinking, "not again", referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We watched the replay of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top Speech". We watched as a young minister we knew personally shook Dr. King's hand after he finished the speech.

I remember my youngest sibling proclaiming "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last" in front of the television.

I didn't want to go to school the next day but my parents made me. I was one of 12 African American students in a student body of about 500. I remember walking into the predominately white high school on April 5, 1968, to find the students and most of the faculty members celebrating the death of Dr. King with a Pep Rally complete with hundreds of Confederate Flags waving and the band playing Dixie. Some of my classmate's fathers  were members the Alabama National Guard bragged their fathers were going to Memphis to kill some N's. I remember being glad when the school day was finally over.
I will be glad when this day is over because it still feels like yesterday.

Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at a Memphis hospital. He was 39 years old.
In the months before his assassination, Martin Luther King became increasingly concerned with the problem of economic inequality in America. He organized a Poor People's Campaign to focus on the issue, including an interracial poor people's march on Washington, and in March 1968 traveled to Memphis in support of poorly treated African-American sanitation workers. On March 28, a workers' protest march led by King ended in violence and the death of an African-American teenager. King left the city but vowed to return in early April to lead another demonstration.

On April 3, back in Memphis, King gave his last sermon, saying, "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop...And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

One day after speaking those words, Dr. King was shot and killed by a sniper. As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in cities all across the United States and National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis and Washington, D.C. On April 9, King was laid to rest in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to pay tribute to King's casket as it passed by in a wooden farm cart drawn by two mules.

On the 43th anniversary of that terrible and tragic day in our history, let's not forget why Dr. King was in Memphis in the first place. He was there fighting for economic justice for trash collectors in the city of Memphis. Fighting a battle for people who were downtrodden, overlooked and spit on by a city, and the white power structure that ran it.

The content of our character

"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values... when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered." Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

I am not "celebrating" the 25th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday because it's a chilling reminder why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't live to see this day. This time every year, pundits and white Americans engage in an exercise I’ll call "See I ain't prejudice", because they attend a Martin Luther King Jr. "unity" event or quote selected quotes from his speeches to make us forget Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis TN just because he tried to to make the world a better place for everybody. Some of the same people who hated what Martin Luther King, Jr. died for in 1968 are giving the public facade they were always in line with his principles, but just for one day.

Four decades after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, the violence is still here, aimed at liberals and Democrats.

They’ve been gunned down in Tucson, shot to death at the Pentagon, and blown away at the Holocaust Museum, as well as in Wichita, Knoxville, Pittsburgh, Brockton, and Okaloosa County, Florida.

Total body count for these incidents: 19 dead, 26 wounded

The day after the King Holiday, House republicans will make good on their promise to vote to repeal health care reform, hoping their followers don't know the difference between voting to repeal health care reform and actually repealing health care reform. The gop is actually doing something I wish the democratic party would do, which is take a stand on principle, sending a signal to their base they are willing to fight even if they loose.

Republicans effectively have three choices when it comes to health care. First, they could simply give up on repealing the entirety of the law, and will instead focus on incremental, fiscally-responsible changes. Second, Republicans could simply argue that they find the Affordable Care Act so offensive, they just don't care about the effects repeal would have on the deficit.

Third, GOP officials could just start making stuff up, and hope that reporters and voters can't tell the difference. As Krugman explains in his piece, this is the preferred avenue for the new House majority.

Let us renew our commitment to the radical revolution of values for which Dr.
King gave his life as we turn to the realities of current life. ~Bill Quigley for Buzzflash at Truthout

Happy 81st Birthday Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.

On the day when America "honors" Dr. King on his birthday, let us not forget the reason he's not here to celebrate what would be his 81st birthday is because he was murdered in Memphis, TN in support of striking sanitation workers (aka garbage men). Dr. King didn't live to see his 81st birthday because he had the audacity to fight for African Americans to have the right to vote. Dr. King was murdered because he believed in peace not war. Dr. King was murdered just like President Abraham Lincoln was murdered for freeing black folk from the bondage of slavery. Dr. King was murdered just like President John F. Kennedy and his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy because they dared believe all men and women were created equal.

So as we "celebrate" the legacy of Dr. King today, let us also remember why he died and what he died for. Some of the same Americans who praise King today are some of the same Americans who bombed his house and called him Martin Luther Coon and other derogatory names. Some of the same Americans who praise Dr. King in death, hounded and harassed him in life. Some of the same Americans who praise Dr. King today will attend a Tea Party protest tomorrow. The same politicians who honor Dr. King today will vote against health care reform tomorrow. The same elected officials who celebrate the legacy of Dr. King will vote to send our sons and daughters to war.

Dr. King's I Have a Dream speech will be played over and over again on his birthday. I choose to honor his birthday by remembering the speech he gave on the eve of his death and these prophetic words; I'm happy,tonight I'm not worried about anything, Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Happy 81st birthday Dr. King. May you rest in the peace you were denied on earth.