Tuesday, February 21, 2006
E-mail Opinions on The Coretta Scott King Funeral
With his permission, I'm publishing his e-mail (two, actually), below because I think it's damn fine writing:
Dave,
Greetings from [the East Coast]. I found a coffee house in Maryland with plush leather couches, reggae, Cuban and French cuisine, an actual alcohol bar in the corner (shhhh) and smoking out back! This is a hard place to leave. (My note: I am so totally jealous and envious of your coffee/alcohol/smoking house find!)
I hope you are doing well and I miss our discussions.
I really appreciated your pieces on the temperance movement and Osama. I still don't understand why we as a nation have taken our eyes off him. Maybe we are too busy musing over non-events like Cheney's hunting accident.
I also agreed with your assessment that too much politicking happened at Corretta Scott King's funeral. I thought I might throw my own two cents in about a few details.
My former boss's wife worked for Lyndon Baines Johnson and some of the things that trickled to me from him were that he cursed like a sailor but more importantly that he never forgave Martin Luther King for turning on him in terms of the war. LBJ gave MLK most of what he campaigned for regarding civil rights and took it personally when a year or so later (when) MLK was a voice of anti-war protest. Who knows if this is the reason he didn't attend the services but it seems likely.
I agreed with much of what you stated, the Left wrongfully claims in that piece. I thought I would try to distinguish between Left, Right, Democrat and Republican. It is strange to me that people don't really consider the prance around the Maypole these four take, releasing each other and grabbing a new partner. Without a doubt Democrats were the feet-draggers with civil rights. However, the party ranged from left to right at the time. The "Dixiecrats" fought for segregation while Hubert Humphrey type northern Liberal Democrats did the opposite. I am not very up on that period's Republican response to civil rights but I wouldn't be surprised if they same diversity of opinion existed.
In a somewhat related topic I had to brush up on some Slave narratives collected in the 1920's of very elderly x-slaves. In the opposite manner of today, almost without an exception, they stated they would never vote Democrat. But then again if there was a Fremont (Civil War ERA Radical Republican) today he would likely be in neither party but in correspondence with Howling Howard Dean.
Dave, this is just some food for thought. America breaking down into two major pockets of group thinking is a terrible thing. I pray someday soon rural/suburban and urban America realize we are all American and our destiny and well-being is intertwined.
Yours,
Keep Us Free,
JMW
- Dave,
Back to the Coretta Scott King thing for a second. One small current of thought bouncing around [my] Black (oooops African-American [I prefer American first and then descent following, myself an American of African and Swedish descent, e.g.]) mind is a disgruntledness revolving around Betty Shabazz not getting the same treatment as Coretta Scott King and this having to do with Euro-American discomfort with the spouse Malcolm X. What a bunch of BS. Betty faded into obscurity as a community college professor and cashed in [on] the speaking tour. She was nice but hardly profound or even relevant after awhile. Coretta worked to continue MLK's vision. Don't get me wrong there are some issues AA's should focus on but the disgruntled over nothing schtick is getting old and that's why I prefer someone like Barack Obama as liberal as he is to a [Al] Sharpton or grumbling entitlement minded speaker. Things will never be perfect, they aren't for anyone, so focus on opportunity unless something is absolutely necessary to address. Okay off my soapbox but that was a kind of sub-community non-issue in-group undercurrent to the Coretta funeral that pissed me off. Ok, off the soap box for me.
Stay warm and free,
Yours
JMW
©2006
Alabama Internet
accordance and compliance with Fair Use Section 107 U.S. Copyright Code.
All other images and content © 2005-2009 David Drake.
Not responsible for content contained at linked sites.
Policy on commenting:
- Anonymous comments have little chance of being published.
- Comments made on posts 60 days old or older have little chance of being published.
- Published comments do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog author.
- Discretion of publishing or rejecting submitted comments rests solely with the owner and creator of this blog.
- Comments that egregiously "plug" (i.e. advertise or promote) another site or blog will be rejected. This doesn't mean you cannot include a link to your story, blog or to another site, but don't go overboard.
- Profanity is not a disqualifying factor, but profane rants solely for purposes of profanity are unlikely to be published.
- The owner and creator of this blog is not liable or responsible for the opinions of those who comment.
