50 Years, MLK, and We Are Losing Ground

This is silly.

Which of these things are worse now than they were in 2008, or 1998, or 1988, or 1978? You are also nuts if you think that anything that is happening now is as bad as lynchings. Maybe you don't know what really happened during a lynching... they were barbaric. Things aren't perfect now, you can point out bad things that happen (and I am sure you will). But to say they are worse then ever is ridiculous.

The sky is not falling.

First, that is not what he said. Secondly, it just sounds like more posturing, moralizing, hyperbole and does nothing to promote unity. The last thing some people want.

Michael Moore
3 mins ·
50 years ago tonight, as a child, I was exiting our Catholic church and someone from the parking lot shouted out the following information to all of us: “They've killed King! Martin Luther King is dead!"

A cheer arose from some of the all-white crowd exiting the church. It burns in my memory to this day.

64% of white guys and 53% of white women voting for Trump was never a surprise to me. My goal remains to lessen that number and to reduce the cheers or indifference when racism rears its ugly head.

Thank you Dr. King for all you did. We carry on.
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I experienced the same thing. We were at a table in my apartment, playing Risk. The news came on the radio and the guy next to me, an oversize blonde haired guy, leapt out of his chair, made a kiss off motion, while grinning hugely, and ran off to tell the rest of his friends. This in Brooklyn.

You were not his friend? He was in your apartment.

Moore's tweet implies Trump is a racist, nothing to see here.

Michael Moore doesn't own the legacy of Martin Luther King. I am not even sure they would get along.

Self defense is hardly a lynching or an execution.

I really doubt that King believed that black people should be allowed to murder police officers with impunity.



It is reasonable and fair to prevent Democratic voters from voting over and over and over again in the same election.

I suspect that King would agree with me on this.



Those are legitimate issues, sure. They impact white people too.

Absolutely sickening.

As a high school junior at the time of King's assassination, I saw the same reaction at Memorial High School in the Spring Branch Independent School District of Houston, Texas. I wasn't interested in national politics at that time, but I noticed that King was as unpopular among my classmates as the leading narcotics officer of the local police. (Yes, drug abuse was a problem among some of my classmates, who came from "upstanding" families.) I saw less glee when school let out for the summer.

These stories sound like the politically convenient anecdotes told by people on the right about soldiers being spit on. This is just political posturing. The fact is that King was mourned nationally.

It doesn't take away from the progress we have made because of King's legacy.

Sir, I and edgarblythe are telling the truth. We are simply describing the reactions we personally witnessed 50 years ago. I have not said a word about the progress that has been made in race relations. (Never mind that social gains can be lost. Just take a look at history.) Yes, King was mourned nationally; but the sentiment certainly was not universal.

By the way, some servicemen returning from Vietnam were spat upon (which action was utterly despicable).

You have called edgarblythe and I liars. You owe us an apology.

He's such a fuckin jerk I quit reading his posts.

That's what I should do.

That happened way to often. The soldiers were mature enough to take the abuse from adult children passing for citizens, when they should have beat their asses.

I'm in complete agreement with you. Those men had suffered traumatic experiences as soldiers. One of my wife's fellow teachers was a Vietnam vet. He couldn't talk about his experiences. Spitting on the soldiers added salt to their wounds.

No I have not called you or Edgar a liar. I am not saying that your anecdotes aren't true. I am saying that they are politically opportunistic.

There is no way to know if Martin Luther King himself would have agreed with Edgar. However, I see a dramatic difference between the spirit of what Edgar is saying and the uplifting and challenging message of Martin Luther King.

It is ignorant to think that actual combat would not seriously effect a person. That effect depends on the person, but he or she will be affected. My father did not talk about the war with us(his children).

I opposed the war. Neither I nor any of my friends ever spit on a soldier. We blamed the politicians. Even when a man related to some of my inlaws told me of atrocities he and his outfit committed, I held my tongue and focused my condemnation on the perpetrators of the war. Not all protesters had the brains to protest properly, and I never defended the ones that abused the soldiers.

Was your wife's colleague spat upon? I ask this because, as a Vietnam vet myself, I never experienced anything like this. And I know it's become one of those urban legends that broken down homeless vets have used to gain sympathy. I'm sure there were confrontations between vets and protestors that ended in hostility — but I remember soldiers bragging about how they beat up peace demonstrators. There may have been excesses on both sides but I'd be very wary of spreading this particular meme unless you can vouch for it's truth.

Vets became the most prominent war protesters in the late stages of the war.

It depends on who "we" are.

The BLM movement has divided us into two groups: one that feels justice has been righteously served and one that feels no justice at all. Freddie Gray was victimized only because he was a drug user and therefore not warranted the basics of human dignity to be thrown into the back of a paddy wagon to meet his destiny. Trevon Martin was walking along, accused of being black and shot and killed for it. Tamir Rice causes a lot of controversy because he had what would appear to be a weapon, only it wasn't. And he was a kid.

Poor Mr. Colin Kaepernick wants to kneel during the National Anthem but does so on company time, a pure slap in the face to any football team owner. Too bad almost every veteran will say it's what they fought for. Also, too bad that he really does suck as a quarter back or else the Browns would have picked him up already.

Due to the Civil Rights movement, all kinds of exploited peoples have come up in the course of discussion. Lately, the news has been geared to a woman's issues agenda.

For that not to be included of the rights of black people seems erroneous. The push back isn't because someone is black, it's because a segmented part of society feels threatened by everything and as such, all are targeted.