The American Spectator : He Kept His Eyes on the Prize

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He Kept His Eyes on the Prize

By Ken Blackwell & Bob Morrison on 1.9.12 @ 6:07AM

All Americans can be grateful for the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Informed in 1960 that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Senior would be voting for the Protestant Richard Nixon, Sen. Jack Kennedy smiled and said: “We all have fathers.” It was typical of his wit. Kennedy’s own father was a notorious anti-Semite and appeaser. Young Jack would never repudiate Old Joe, or fail to cash Joe’s hefty checks. Kennedy would win that election and go on to present Congress with the most far-reaching civil rights legislation in a century.

We celebrate this month the life and legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King, Junior. He kept his eyes on the prize: civil rights for millions of black Americans suffering under unjust Jim Crow laws.

Racial segregation was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in one of the worst rulings in history, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In that case that the former Kentucky slave owner, Justice John Marshall Harlan, wrote this powerful dissent:

The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.…

…We boast of the freedom enjoyed by our people above all other peoples. But it is difficult to reconcile that boast with a state of the law which, practically, puts the brand of servitude and degradation upon a large class of our fellow-citizens, our equals before the law. The thin disguise of “equal” accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead any one, nor atone for the wrong this day done.

The wrong of that day of Plessy lasted into the 1960s. Justice Harlan, a Republican appointee, ringingly proclaimed that the Constitution must be “color-blind.” Let’s honor his memory, too.

Dr. King made his point in biblical cadences. He cried out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: “Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). Following the peaceful conclusion of that great March on Washington in August 1963, President Kennedy invited Dr. King and the leaders of the civil rights movement to a meeting in the Oval Office.

It was not Dr. King’s first time there. President Eisenhower had made a point of inviting Dr. King to meet with him to discuss civil rights when King emerged as the leader of the Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott in 1957. Dr. King and his followers refused to ride in the back of the buses that their tax dollars supported.

Ike had used his appointive powers to name Supreme Court justices who would correct the injustice of Plessy. Barely a year into Eisenhower’s first term, the high court unanimously ruled against segregation in public schools in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). And Republican Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, when the Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus defied federal court orders to de-segregate that city’s schools.

Eisenhower was criticized endlessly by liberal elites for his emphasis on massive federal highway construction and for encouraging American prosperity. “A vast wasteland,” they dubbed TV in what all now see as its golden age. Still, it was over Ike’s new Interstate highways that the Freedom Riders of the early sixties blazed a trail to end segregation. And those TV news cameras let all Americans see, for the first time, the police dogs and fire hoses necessary to maintain segregation. Political reform followed quickly on the heels of Ike’s achievements.

When Democratic Sen. Hubert Humphrey led the fight for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he had no stronger ally than Republican Leader Everett Dirksen. Minority Republicans in the Senate gave even stronger support, proportionately, than Democrats did to push through that historic legislation.

Dr. King was willing to lay down his life. His assassination by a white racist on April 4, 1968, was the culmination of King’s lifelong advocacy of full equality under law.

“I have been to the mountain top,” Dr. King told his worried supporters in the days before his murder. He had indeed. He saw the promised land of equal justice under law. He had that vision because he kept his eyes on the prize. All Americans can be grateful for his legacy.

About the Author

Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.

About the Author

Bob Morrison is a writer and researcher in Washington and a senior fellow at the Family Research Council.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (83) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Indy| 1.9.12 @ 8:34AM

"Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as a means to the end of the state, but always as an end within himself."
- MLK

Alan Brooks | 1.9.12 @ 8:58AM

"His assassination by a white racist on April 4, 1968, was the culmination of King's lifelong advocacy of full equality under law."

A tactless thing to write, Blackwell:
"MLK had to be martyred to fulfill his destiny."

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 9:15AM

..."King had to have his @ss shot so there would be riots and investigating commissions and all that stuff so we could stir the pot up Real Good Like!
You gots to break an egg to make an omelet."

Sho Nuff.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:11AM

Yeah, we get it. You like Black Guys, and you're never going back. That doesn't make the rest of a buncha Racists.

Actually. It might make YOU the Racist.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:21AM

The post you wrote below, Pennell, is dripping with disdain for blacks, it can be roughly translated, 'I don't hate the goddamn coons- I just don't like 'em.':

"is it the 85% of Babies, born to a Single Mother? Is it the fact that 15% of the Population (Blacks) is responsible for 56% of all Violent Crimes committed?

Is it Dependence on a Welfare Check? Is it the Black Woman, with 6 kids, from 6 different Black Men? Is it the Black Man, with 6 different kids, with 6 different Black Women? Is it all of the 4th Generation Black Families on Welfare?

Is it the Black Flash Mobs, wreaking Havoc, in America's Malls, Fast Food Restaurants, and Convenient Stores? Is it the Black Mobs, descending on these stores, and STEALING everything that isn't nailed down?

Is it the way Black men now have B*tches and Hoes, instead of Girls, and young Ladies? Is it the Hat on sideways, and the Pants pulled down? Is it he FACT that over 50% of Black Males are somewhere in the Judicial System (In Jail/On Trial/Awaiting Trial/Awaiting Bail/On Bail/Awaiting Sentencing, on any given day?"

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:41AM

Instead of the Hissy Fit, why don't you tell the class, where my statements are False?

I like everybody. Unlike Liberals, I think that Blacks are just as capable as anybody else. I'm not the one who's been treating them like Pavlov's Dog, for the last 50 Years. I'm not the one who has CONDITIONED THEM to Rely on GOVERNMENT, so that they DROOL, on Welfare Check Day, and line up around the Street, on Voting Day to vote for MORE Dependence on the White Liberal's table scraps.

And, I like Raccoons. I don't know where you got the idea that I didn't.

Seek| 1.9.12 @ 11:09AM

Nobody is forcing blacks to vote Democrat. Blacks vote that way on their own because they know that's the party giving out the free stuff, from food stamps to Medicaid to ghetto lottery lawsuits to slavery "reparations."

Blacks are not hostages held captive on the Democrats' metaphorical plantation. They OWN the plantation. And terrified white liberals (not to mention a good many terrified white conservatives) give into them every time.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:09PM

Ah, no answer from Brooks. Like the rest of the barking moonbats Brooks has no response to the facts. Brooks is racist to his barking moonbat core.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 6:43PM

Okay, I'm a Grand Dragon in the Klan, Alrighty?

Good Ol' Martin Luther,
he was willing to get shot in the chest for us
and drop to the balcony of the motel for us
and be unconscious for us
and die for us.

Good ol' Martin! he was a true Martyr for us.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 11:13AM

"All Americans can be grateful to the Legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."

Really? What "Legacy" is that?

Is it the 85% of Babies, born to a Single Mother? Is it the fact that 15% of the Population (Blacks) is responsible for 56% of all Violent Crimes committed?

Is it the State of Education for young Black Children? Or, is it the fact that Nobody seems to care?

Is it their Dog like Loyalty to the Party of the KKK, Bull Conner, and James Earl Ray? The Party of William Fulbright, Al Gore's Daddy, and Senator "Kleegle", from West Virginia, who all FOUGHT the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Party of Snarling Police Dogs, Fire Hoses, and Segregated EVERYTHING.

Is it the fact that, even with Black Unemployment at 17% for Black Adults, and 47% for young Black Job Seekers, 98% of Blacks will vote for him, again, in direct OPPOSITION, to Dr. King's Dream of a "World where men and Women are judged, NOT by the Colour of their Skin, but by the CONTENT of their CHARACTER"?

Is that the Legacy that you're talking about?

Unless you're BLIND?

Dr. King's Legacy DIED, when he did.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:12PM

It actually died before he did. The Civil Rights Act was the death knell. Ask people like Dr. Sowell. Blacks were actually rising before that, and he was one of them. Same with Dr. Walter Williams.

The civil rights act was more extension of Federally usurped power into the area in which only the states had power, and is part of the ever tightening Police State we now see with its center in the district of corruption.

D. Singh| 1.9.12 @ 8:45AM

Sir

A very fair summation; balanced in its praise of Democrats and Republicans and a judicious in its use of quotes.

Uplifting!

Alan Brooks | 1.9.12 @ 8:55AM

"All Americans can be grateful for the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr."

Save for Stormfront, and their boy David Duke:
http://www.stormfront.org

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:13PM

Not apologizing for that gang, but they are part of the reaction to the Federal Police state that sanctions a vicious form of racism which you love.

Barn Cat| 1.9.12 @ 9:45AM

In a lot of ways, MLK has no legacy. The people who celebrate him are among those who've destroyed it. We'll never have a color-blind society as long as the left has influence. White racism has essentially disappeared but black racism is still a mile deep and highly toxic. Government sponsored favoritism has taught many blacks that they don't have to work as hard as whites. That and the huge criminal ghetto population has caused much of white America to have little respect for much of black America.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:06AM

"White racism has essentially disappeared but black racism is still a mile deep and highly toxic."

After they way you have treated Obama, I don't blame them.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:20AM

Yeah. HOW DARE WE treat him like we would ANY White Politician. HOW DARE WE hold him to the same scrutiny.

Let me tell you a FACT, Susie. If Charlie Rangel was a WHITE REPUBLICAN? He'd be in JAIL, right now, and you woulda went through 10 Bottles of hand cream, during his Trial.

Nobody cares that he's a Black Muslim. (which he is)

We HATE HIM because he's RED.

And, lose the whole: Self hating thing, will ya?
It's tiresome, and unbecoming of a woman of your stature, and advanced age.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:29AM

Geez, what did a black do to you, Pennell? did a bro rape you when you were in High School and you want revenge? you can barely control your urge to scream your dislike of blacks and gays.
LIGHTEN UP, PENNELL; this is only a magazine: don't have a cow-- go to church and pray about so you will feel a bit better.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:50AM

I don't dislike Blacks and Gays. I dislike people who want to turn my Country in to a Third World Sodom and Gomorrah, Snuff Film.

Again: Why don't tell the rest of us, which Country treats Blacks and gays better than MY Country.

You keep wanting to ignore the FACT that, the LEFT, when it gets Control, likes to put Bullets in the Heads of the Homosexuals. Or WORSE.

"They came for the Homosexuals, and I said nothing."

You might wanna remember that, when you untie yourself?

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:32PM

"Why don't tell the rest of us, which Country treats Blacks and gays better than MY Country."

Berkeley!

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 1:52PM

That sounds about right, coming from you.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:14PM

Berkeley is an asylum where the maniacs run loose.

PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 10:30AM

Indeed. This article's comments are a perfect example of the real MLK legacy of white guilt, hypocrisy, and broken families. Even this holiday is less about celebrating MLK per se, rather than a need for a holiday to honor a well educated black man. Even as Obama milked his half-black status throughout his life it overshadows his presidency.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:36AM

"Even as Obama milked his half-black status throughout his life it overshadows his presidency."

You got the tenses wrong. Anyway, God! do you guys loathe Obama! good thing Michelle isn't white or you'd be so jealous, you'd shoot him.

PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 11:05AM

Oh my! I got the tenses wrong! Please forgive me! On the other hand, you totally blew off the moral issues I raised. That's liberalism in a nutshell: Living in lily white suburbs bashing the working class whites they love to live around. Hilarious.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:26PM

Alrighty, tell me where to move to be with nonwhites, and I'll do so- unlike some of you, I'm not afraid of them.

PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 1:19PM

Alan, you don't need us to tell you where the non-whites are. You can't drive around and use your own eyes? What a cheap, fake sentiment. You don't live with them because you don't know where they are! Amazing!

Let's reflect that decades after MLK's death, the USA is in many ways as segregated as it was during the Jim Crow era except it's achieved via liberals engaging in suburban sprawl or raising real estate prices in non-white areas. Imagine if all the liberals living in Northern Virginia and commuting an hour a day instead decided to move to... Southeast DC! Imagine all the gasoline they'd save!

This "you're afraid of them" ploy sounds juvenile on your part and that's a hallmark of leftism: They're in the "cool", "smart" group and those who aren't are heretics, er, "unbelievers", er, "deniers." For all their pretense about being so intellectual they're like a bunch of junior high schoolers.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:16PM

Try the Bluff in Atlanta. You claim not to fear them, but you will once you get there and see what you barking moonbats have created with your welfare state. You will fear them.

But knowing barking moonbats as I do, you will *never* move to such a place as all you are is hot air, if you are even as valuable as that.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:12PM

"You claim not to fear them, but you will once you get there and see what you barking moonbats have created with your welfare state. You will fear them."

alRIGHT, then. will stay away from them! gosh, I can take a hint.

PolishKnight| 1.10.12 @ 9:19AM

Alan, no "hint" is necessary. The average white male elitist in the states is a host of contradictions. They originally claimed to worship the working class but once the working class stopped being loyal FDR democrats, they tossed them under the bus. They now worship non-whites and use the state to buy their votes, but they prefer to not live among them. In their world, white marxist elites are well paid unionized government workers and the rest are serfs. That's how it works in China and functioned in the former USSR. If you were an elitist party member, you could shop at the GUM store, get great health care, etc. If not, then you starved to death on a collective farm. This is why Eastern Europeans love Ronald Reagan.

So why did working class whites abandon the party of FDR? Because they got SMART and saw what was coming.

russel| 1.9.12 @ 10:37AM

It's his skin ! His skin ! . Ok , so he's a BLACK socialist . If one listens to Williams or Sowell , they talk about growing up in the 50's . They had a two parent family . Their fathers had jobs and their Mothers took care of the kids . Both had morals which were taught to their kids . Their race was moving in a positive direction . Then all of a sudden the government figured they had it so bad , they needed help . Now look at what they have .

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:04AM

"Their race was moving in a positive direction."

No, the whole point is there was little direction, the '50s was a stagnant decade for blacks and women-- why do you think things cascaded late the next decade and during the entire '70s? you know history but not its subtext.

PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 11:06AM

Runoff sentence. Failure to use capitalization properly.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:10AM

... though I do think LBJ and Carter exacerbated the cascade of events- I never liked either of 'em. LBJ was an egomaniac; Carter was, as Harding, a good person but a bad president.
Carter and WG Harding.. now there's a pair!

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:11AM

Nixon as well: good person, bad president.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:16AM

"PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 11:06AM
Runoff sentence. Failure to use capitalization properly."'

True, but AS isn't worth the effort; it isn't NR in form (we will pass over the substance or lack thereof).
However my critique stands: you know history yet not its shadings.

PolishKnight| 1.9.12 @ 2:59PM

I chuckled at the claim: "the '50s was a stagnant decade for blacks and women." It's such unsupported hyperbole in addition to laughably dishonest. As we all know, white women in the 1950's were the most oppressed group on earth. Recently, a study was commissioned to consider whether police were profiling traffic stops on race or gender. Guess which group was the least likely to get a ticket? Hint: It wasn't white males!

In the meantime, since the so-called civil rights movement black men have been kicked out of the home and thrown into prison. Good going liberals who are so "caring!"

FYI, I sat on a juror on a case where a woman DA was trying to railroad a Hispanic man into prison for 20 years for hitting his wife back after she attacked him. Another women juror said "A woman has a right to hit a man and he can't hit her back."

The left has thrown working class men under the bus. Remember the days a century ago when the left claimed to worship the factory worker and the farmer? Now, they treat them with contempt.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:19PM

The left holds us all in contempt. They are the most self hating group in world history.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:15PM

"Remember the days a century ago when the left claimed to worship the factory worker and the farmer? Now, they treat them with contempt."

No more proletarianism.

PolishKnight| 1.10.12 @ 9:24AM

It would make sense for the left to abandon the proletariat if they also didn't regularly bash the bourgeoisie as well. When they splurt out the slogan "We care about the middle class!" what they mean is they care about their various cronies such as unionized federal workers, billionaire contributors at Goldman Sachs, and the welfare classes. For now. As Yulia Tymoshenko discovered like so many who stayed at luxurious high rises in Moscow during the 1930's, it's all fashion. When you're in, you're in and when you're out, you're out.

Don't worry Alan. They've got an affirmative solution planned for your type too. Read 1984 and see how government bureaucrats are treated... Enjoy the Victory Gin!

Seek| 1.9.12 @ 12:29PM

The idea of a "color-blind" society is exactly what whites shouldn't celebrate. Blacks, guaranteed, don't celebrate this myth -- and I can't blame them. We whites are the suckers. King's contemporary followers, white or black, haven't destroyed his legacy so much as ratified it.

bill| 1.9.12 @ 9:48AM

The Godfather of the "Black liberation theology," prompting hate and anarchy across America in the 60s, that still exists among the so-called minorities towards Whites, blaming America and preaching socialism is not the message of justice and equality, but it demoralizes the founding principle of America-liberty and free-enterprise.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:09AM

"but it demoralizes the founding principle of America-liberty and free-enterprise."

So, America America was not founded on Christian principles after all? you admit it? you are writing America is about freedom and business.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:10AM

So,America was not founded on Christian principles after all? you admit it? you are writing America is about freedom and business?
Try to give a FORTHRIGHT answer, for once.

bill| 1.9.12 @ 10:26AM

Liberty means your soul and the fruit of your labor. Government seeks to demoralize our liberty, and that's tyranny. Without free-enterprise, this world will collapse. Socialism is toxic and brings despair. Free-enterprise brings hope and prosperity.

You got it!

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:30AM

"Free-enterprise brings hope and prosperity."

But not Christianity?

bill| 1.9.12 @ 11:03AM

Off course,In God We Trust.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:18AM

No! in Adam Smith You Trust.

You think anyone doesn't know that?

bill| 1.9.12 @ 12:19PM

Enough is enough!

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:21PM

Between morons like Alan Brooks and the AntiPaultards, the comment areas of this website have become less like an area where a reasoning man can critique an article and more like a playground sand box with a bunch of 4 year olds trying to out yell the trouble makers.

AmSpec desperately needs to clean things up.

Doctor Right| 1.9.12 @ 9:50AM

Sorry, but I don't genuflect at the altar of "Saint MLK Jr." I never have and I never will.

Rarely in the course of recent history has an individual been more propped-up by myth than fact as was MLK, Jr.

Was he brave? Sure. Did he stand-up to racists? Sure, but so did thousands of other Americans of all races, creeds, and religions. But unlike him, most of them weren't narcissistic, serial adulterers with a mistress/girlfriend in practically every port.

The fact that King was a sinner, like all of us, is not the issue. But the fact that he was a blatant hypocrite who called himself "Reverend" and pretended to be a man of God while simultaneously cheating on his wife at practically every opportunity he had is nothing less than despicable. In fact, he was with his mistress on the day he was shot and killed, having spent the night with her in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis! She was there when he died.

And just so you don't think it's "all about sex," before he died King was about to embark on an ambitious, national "Poor Peoples" campaign consisting of a massive demand for increased entitlement programs and wealth transfers that would have made Saul Alinsky blush.

In other words, having run out of any real "struggles" to combat, King was transforming himself into a rabble-rouser and shakedown artist of the kind we've since become accustomed to in Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Finally, there are so many more deserving Americans of past and recent history who don't have their own national holiday. Why not Frederick Douglas? Benjamin Franklin? Benjamin L'Enfant? Alexander Hamilton? Robert E. Lee? Harriet Tubman? Etc, etc.

But King? No thanks.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:12AM

"Robert E. Lee?"

Oh that would go down well! replacing MLK Day with Robert E. Lee Day. Where were you when the brains were passed out?

Doctor Right| 1.9.12 @ 10:34AM

Obviously standing in line, ahead of you.

Robert E. Lee was a GREAT American and a true Patriot. He was a war hero in the Mexican-American war, and so impressed General Winfield Scott, Supreme Commander of the Army and a later advisor to Lincoln that Scott said Lee was "the best soldier I ever served with."

In fact, Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union Army prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, and Lee considered the offer but ultimately declined because he said he could not "lift a hand against my native Virginia."

After the war, Lee, who was revered by officers on both sides of the conflict, became a Professor and ultimately the President of Washington University in Lexington, Virginia. FYI, Alan, it's now called "Washington & Lee" University. Lee's mausoleum lies on the grounds, which are a national historic landmark.

So you see, genius, Robert E. Lee was FAR more important to the growth of this nation than 10 Martin Luther Kings.

Brains??? What's your excuse?

FYI, we all know you'd prefer a "Harvey Milk Day", but that won't happen until Perez Hilton becomes President, so good luck!

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:43AM

Why, yes, fighting the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy was FAR more important to the growth of this nation than 10 Martin Luther Kings.

PS: Harvey Milk could only do better than both Bushes, Dole and McCain combined.

Doctor Right| 1.9.12 @ 11:04AM

"PS: Harvey Milk could only do better than both Bushes, Dole and McCain combined."

That's probably true, but until "swallowing" becomes a valued skill for a POTUS to have, I'm not sure it's relevant.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:21PM

Good. Can we write you down for a vote when that election finally comes?

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:08AM

"All Americans can be grateful to the Legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."

Really? What "Legacy" is that?

Is it the 85% of Babies, born to a Single Mother? Is it the fact that 15% of the Population (Blacks) is responsible for 56% of all Violent Crimes committed?

Is it the State of Education for young Black Children? Or, is it the fact that Nobody seems to care?

Is that the Legacy that you're talking about?

Unless you're BLIND?

Dr. King's Legacy DIED, when he did.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:17AM

White families have splintered more than black families; this is due to economic, political, social dislocation-- not MLK / "lib'ralism".

You are a remarkable pighead, Pennell.

bill| 1.9.12 @ 10:30AM

Have been to Jeremiah Wright's church or Al Sharpton's school of hate and anti-semitism?
The both trash America and blame on White people for poverty and inequality among the minorities. But actually, minorities suffer because they're uneducated and unskilled. It has nothing to do with race, it depends on choice and dignity.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 10:31AM

That's it? That's all you've got?
"Pighead"? No Dudu Head? No Poopy Head? I'm insulted.

I don't think that YOU, and HEAD, should be used in the same sentence, in polite conversation. Maybe you should GO BLOW, as they say.

Actually. That's probably not good, either.

I never blamed Reverend King. I blame all those who came AFTER him. Most of them, you can find in the Congressional Black Caucus. The rest of them can be found at your nearest Black Liberation Theology Hate Church.

Why don't you be a good boy, and find yourself a good old Fashion Glory Hole Site, and settle in for the rest of the day?

Cause you're just messing up the Screen with your DRIVEL.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:48AM

"Have been to Jeremiah Wright's church or Al Sharpton's school of hate and anti-semitism?"

If you continue to treat Obama as your whipping boy, I WILL attend BOTH their churches. BTW, if Pennell doesn't like me, I can't be all bad; at any rate, just one question, bill: why is Pennell so bent out of shape? what sort of bug does Tim have up his arse?

bill| 1.9.12 @ 11:06AM

You have to ask them.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 11:08AM

Man. You are such a baby. I like ya. I don't agree with ya. I don't wanna live in YOUR Perfect World. A world with NO RULES and NO BOUNDARIES. A world where, If it feels good? Do it. A world with no Moral Compass.
That's all.

I have a Family. I want them to grow up like I did. In Freedom. With Liberty, and a sense that we are BLESSED to live in the Greatest Country the World has ever known.

Not in a POLICE STATE, where our Lives, and our DEATHS, are controlled by a Central Bureaucracy, from the Cradle to the Grave. A POLICE STATE, run by a Man who feels the NEED to hide all of his Personal Documentation, from us, in a Vault, on an Island in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean.

That's not Hate for you.

It's HATE for your insistence that, that's exactly what we need.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:10PM

"we are BLESSED to live in the Greatest Country the World has ever known."

Second greatest- but we try harder. England is #1 because without England:
no America starting in 1620;
no James Watt, thus no steam engine;
no Churchill, thus no more West..

Want gratitude? then you be grateful yourself.

Seek| 1.9.12 @ 12:31PM

For the record, Watt was a Scot.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 1:54PM

Stop it. You're confusing him.

Quartermaster| 1.9.12 @ 6:26PM

I think it self evident that he's confused with no help from anyone else. As we say in the hills around these parts "he's done right good all by his ownself."

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:18PM

"For the record, Watt was a Scot."

But the Industrial Revolution was in England.

shane teton | 1.9.12 @ 10:38AM

just an aside: there is no content of character--either you have it, or you don't

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:54AM

"No Dudu Head? No Poopy Head? I'm insulted."

Well, if you insist, Tim... you are both a Dudu and Poopy Head. We graciously try to adjust to your wishes at AS.

Sartor Resartus.

Timothy L. Pennell| 1.9.12 @ 11:09AM

I think you need to Spell Check those last two words.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:03PM

Obamamus POTUS, Justus.

Paybackus Timus.

Sheila| 1.9.12 @ 10:51AM

Michael King was a plagiarist, a serial adulterer, and a socialist. He's the perfect symbol for black America. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/mlking.asp

http://amren.com/oldnews/archives/2011/11/The Unknown Martin Luther King, Jr.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 10:56AM

"Michael King was a plagiarist, a serial adulterer, and a socialist. He's the perfect symbol for black."

Blackwell, too? or is present company excepted.

Kingofthenet| 1.9.12 @ 11:37AM

Class Warfare was unilaterally declared long ago by the Rich, they only want two classes, Master and Slave.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 12:05PM

well at least they are not Marxists seeking a classless Utopia, eh?

shipley130| 1.9.12 @ 2:17PM

Yeah, real grateful....."Guam tipping over" Johnson, Maxine Waters, Alice in Wonderland Obamas, Charlie Rangel, Sheeba Jackson Lee, Marion Berry, OJ Simpson, the thieves and rapists in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, etc.

Kingofthenet| 1.9.12 @ 5:08PM

You should be happy they didn't come looking to 'settle scores'...Payback is a Bitch!

John| 1.9.12 @ 8:54PM

You people on here leaving petty and insulting comments about Dr. King are pathetic. While I don't necessarily agree with the socialist means he wanted to employ to advance his last crusade, ie The Poor Peoples Campaign, you have to look at his life as a whole.

He wasn't anywhere near perfect...he cussed profoundly, he drank too much, he had many mistresses...kind of sounds like a black JFK!

However, he stood for something great. His life became the Civil Rights Movement. He strove and suffered for what is the most basic of human freedoms...to be judged not upon your outward appearance but by your actions.

I don't recall choosing my hair color...my eye color...my gender...or the color of my skin. However, I choose to treat those around me with respect and courtesy regardless of skin color or race until such time as they EARN my disrespect and discourtesy.

All Dr. King wanted was for people to be treated with dignity and equality before the law regardless of what they looked like or how much money they had. Sounds like a pretty conservative principle to me.

Alan Brooks| 1.9.12 @ 11:22PM

Yes, MLK's having had mistresses is, by today'standards, almost G-Rated.

Charlie Sheen makes MLK appear as a eunuch.

PolishKnight| 1.10.12 @ 11:29AM

One of the great myths of the civil rights movement is that it was about rights for "people" when in reality it was about rights for people in their special interest groups. By that logic, the KKK was a "civil rights" group (a civil rights group for white people.) Today, his legacy lives on where "people" are defined as non-white males.

A similar logic exists for marxism which claims to be a derivative of Robin Hood: Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor to gain "equality" when in reality the marxists always engage in ethnic demonizations and actually reward crony wealthy with kickbacks (Goldman Sachs anyone?) Marxists now regard working class whites with disdain even as they prefer to live among them.

Finally, it's ironic that his followers love to refer to him as "Doctor" rather than Reverend which is where his doctorate was in. With a church and tax free status, he could preach even as his Marxist colleagues seek to treat his very religion with disdain.

Sorry if that's harsh, but I'm judging him by his character and achievements. That's what I would do with FDR, Lincoln, or Washington who have also achieved incredible things but don't have a federal holiday named after them.

POST American| 1.9.12 @ 11:13PM

---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------

Of course, always worth contemplating
what a man like King what have done in
the face of unfolding Globalism, EUGENICS
and TREASON?

Would he, like 33rd degree Free 'May-SINS'
Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson, turn
a blind eye to the cosmically linked issues
of unaccountable world USURY ---and
bottomless EUGENICS?

Would he have been infiltrated, neutralized
and oblivously 'on board'?

Or would he have bravely taken a brave
and unflinching stand?

WE WONDER

AND as we learn even toilet paper is now
staturated with estrogen Bisphenol A
---even the rectum worshippers reading
this should start wondering too.

nathan| 1.10.12 @ 8:11AM

Dr. King's speech was his greatest hour was it not? "Content of character, not color of skin." Today if you quote that you can be considered racist because you don't support affirmative action or quotas based on race. Amazing is it not?

Look at the numbers. In the 60's the illegitimacy rate for blacks in the inner city was around 25 percent. Today it is triple that. Much of this can be attributed to the "good intentions" of the Great Society programs. Little of it can be laid at the feet of "legacy of slavey" whose 150 end we will celebrate in two short years. Bill Cosby, nearly alone on this, calls it a crisis of character.

But as we consider Dr. King, we must view him in the context of his times. And from that perspective he was horribly reckless. He was an ordained minister, and yet his serial adultery, with white women no less, something that press covered up, would have, in that day and time perhaps destroyed his work had it been widely known. It compromised him with J. Edgar Hoover, a man who was perfectly willing to violate his oath of office regarding the Constitution and use information obtained illegally to blackmail people when it suited his whims. Dr. King was an incredibly gifted man who accomplished so much. But he was an incredibly flawed man too who put his movement at risk because of his failure to control his baser appetites.

RIP

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