Wow. An NAACP celebration honoring Martin Luther King Day put a statue of George Washington in a box. No official word yet on why our Founding Father was boxed but I’m thinking it was because he was offensive and people honoring Martin Luther King needed to spared the horror of seeing a statue of the first President.
This is the kind of thing that really makes me worry for the future of our country.
HT Moonbattery
January 18, 2011 at 9:19 pm
For me, yesterday was a celebration of Benjamin Franklin's birthday. That's right, look it up, it's January 17th. And it will always fall on or near MLK day so on the officially recognized King "holiday", I'll always read from Ben's classic "Autobiography" because he did more in one week for America than King did in his whole life.
January 18, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Why don't we ask the new head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus? He worked for NAACP and I'm sure he knows the box protocols.
Aren't we lucky to be rid of Michael Steele?
Sooooooo lucky.
January 18, 2011 at 10:27 pm
I'll always read from Ben's classic "Autobiography" because he did more in one week for America than King did in his whole life.
I am disgusted by George Washington being put in a box but equally disgusted to see such an ignorant comment at a respectable blog such as this. The Civil Rights Movement was necessary and Martin Luther King should be honored by ALL Americans. As someone once said, the South should get down on its knees every single day in gratitude that the Civil Rights Movement was led by a man who preached non-violent resistance.
January 19, 2011 at 12:23 am
I don't like that they covered over George Washington's statue, and I'm not defending the decision, but I think the fact that George Washington was a slave owner may have been the reason.
January 19, 2011 at 12:45 am
To Anonymous Jan. 18 5:27 PM:
Martin Luther King is a very poor role model. He plagiarized his dissertation (an offense for which other people have quite justly had their PhDs withdrawn); he was a serial adulterer; and he had longstanding contacts with communists. Those are not activities that I am at all interested in honoring. I'll take…oh, Booker T. Washington, or Clarence Thomas, or a host of other virtuous black people instead.
We do no one any good by pretending that someone was admirable when he wasn't. In this case, it is rather condescending to do so, not to mention insulting to the many black people who did not and do not plagiarize, or commit adultery, or consort with communists.
Find a more worthy hero. They're out there, and it won't even take much effort.
January 19, 2011 at 1:32 am
"… I think the fact that George Washington was a slave owner may have been the reason"
In that case, perhaps then we should judge King for being a member of the Communist Party..
January 19, 2011 at 3:46 am
"… I think the fact that George Washington was a slave owner may have been the reason."
Odd, since he was the only slave-owning President to emancipate all his slaves, albeit after his death. Jefferson, whose original draft of the Declaration of Independence included a denunciation of the British government for allowing slavery to take root on American soil, never did as much.
January 19, 2011 at 8:05 am
"As someone once said, the South should get down on its knees every single day in gratitude that the Civil Rights Movement was led by a man who preached non-violent resistance."
That's right, because racism is a Southern phenomenon. We never heard about it before or since…right…?
"Martin Luther King is a very poor role model. He plagiarized his dissertation (an offense for which other people have quite justly had their PhDs withdrawn); he was a serial adulterer; and he had longstanding contacts with communists. Those are not activities that I am at all interested in honoring. I'll take…oh, Booker T. Washington, or Clarence Thomas, or a host of other virtuous black people instead."
King was a sinner, like so many of us here on this blog. But this sinner did great things and preached great truths. It is a failure of reason to ignore the good one does because of an unrelated inclination to a particular sin. Of course this method should also be applied to our first president.
January 19, 2011 at 9:37 am
Just another government holy-day. I am not of the emancipated class of state workers. Just a lowly citizen who works 9 months of the year (including MLK day) to render unto Caesar in the land of the "free".
January 19, 2011 at 11:24 am
The "holiday" is reaching idolatrous status. On Monday I heard the local morning TV "news" team wish each other a happy MLK day. As they say on ESPN … "C'mon, man."
January 19, 2011 at 7:31 pm
"As someone once said, the South should get down on its knees every single day in gratitude that the Civil Rights Movement was led by a man who preached non-violent resistance."
That's right, because racism is a Southern phenomenon. We never heard about it before or since…right…?
You missed my point, which was a simple historical one. Racism is not a Southern phenomenon, nor even an American one, but had the American Civil Rights Movement not been a non-violent one, the South would have burned, yet again. The South has MLK to thank for the fact that it did not.
January 19, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Odd, since he was the only slave-owning President to emancipate all his slaves, albeit after his death.
Jefferson and Washington were both hypocrites. There is much to admire in what they did, but from a Catholic point of view it is quite possible both these "great men" are burning in hell. God is no respecter of persons.
January 19, 2011 at 7:57 pm
The "holiday" is reaching idolatrous status. On Monday I heard the local morning TV "news" team wish each other a happy MLK day. As they say on ESPN … "C'mon, man."
I used to work in a law office in an American Northern city that was mixed race, about 50% black. MLK Day was not a company holiday. All the black employees, of various ages and professional levels (there were three black lawyers on staff, and several black support staff), took Martin Luther King Day as a holiday to pay their respects. This was where I gained an appreciation for what MLK means to so many black Americans. I may not admire everything about the man's personal life or politics but I appreciate what he meant to the country.
I now live in Ireland. Some of the comments on this thread disparaging him remind me very much of when certain English people who have strong anti-Irish prejudice make snide remarks about Irish patriots, from Pearse on through to Bobby Sands. I hear it when I am in England and I also hear it from English people visiting Ireland, as though the bloody history of Ireland is something they find "amusing." I know how that kind of ugly bigotry cuts me to the quick.
It is with this in mind that I am really embarrassed by some of the snide comments on this thread about MLK.