I Have A Friend That Is Black...

when I was a kid we had a guy in our neighborhood who would throw something at you or shoot you with a bb gun while your back was turned and then haul ass home and stand behind the locked screen door with his mother and fling tough talk at you.

Now, given the way you and your defense counsel have behaved thus far, I doubt that you (or they) will respond directly to anything, and just make another claim that hasn't anything to with anything I said or even the topic or the thread.

man that really struck a nerve close to home with you didn't it?

can't let it go

man that really struck a nerve close to home with you didn't it?

can't let it go

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

Actually, what edgar means to say is that you wil not get very far with the A2K Lefties if you have the temerity to take them on (one or all).

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

White Liberals claim their Liberal bonafides by holding MLK Day as some sort of sacred holiday.

Ay dios mio! This Brown man now recognizes why his remarks were interpreted as insolence. White liberals, eh?

Of course, they are to be given a pass and allowed their moments of racial and or ethnic "witty banter." After all, who more than they, via their support for affirmative action programs, are responsible for all the "advancements" us minorities currently enjoy in society? Ah, my bad, homies. Aint no thang. If y'allz (and just you) wanna talk like dis, es ok. You guys have earned a free pass to engage in ethnic mockery without being called on it. [/sarcasm]

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

When his day becomes as culturally meaningless as Washington and Lincoln's days, perhaps we will have moved beyond another racial hurdle.

True, true.

Listen, how's about supporting my bid to make the birthday of Cesar Chavez and cinco de mayo national holidays?

We can have piñata parties; it'll be muy fun. Whadda ya say?

Oh, incidentally, Baldimo has a black wife. Why that's germane, I have no idea.

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

I'm finding your contributions on this thread to be delightful. Please come back as often as you like. [Be forewarned though that unless you reject my accolades you will not get far with the A2K Lefties.]

Wow, and now we witness the beginning of another deeply unlikely beautiful friendship!

The acerbic American conservative and the firebrand Mexican nationalist - and that after the earlier coming together of the arrogant US conservative and the outrageous rockstar liberal. Love is in the air! It's a new era...

This thread, boys and girls, must forever hold a special place in our heart..

edgarblythe wrote:

finn's the voice of reason. Just ask around.

I care not if you or anyone considers him/her to be "the voice of reason." I tend to make my responses on a post-by-post basis. And his/her post was on topic, witty, intelligent, and most important, it made me feel really, really welcomed.

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were pretty consequential Americans and yet their days have been combined into Presidents Day which only Federal employees get off.

So do state employees. So do teachers and school children. So, I believe, do banks.

Difference without distinction.

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

There are any number of important Americans, equal to if not exceeding the historical contribution of Dr. King and they get no day of their own at all.

You know, you have a point. If you started from scratch and had everyone make a list of which people deserve to have a holiday which everyone gets off, Martin Luther King might not make the top of the list. In addition to Washington and Lincoln, there are Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt who would probably come before him.

But King was the most significant figure and the civil rights movement was the most significant social movement of the second half of the twentieth century, when the holiday was made. Coupled with the fact that America really had no great monument to the contributions of African Americans and their unique situation in America, and King got moved up a few notches. And it was just a few notches at most.

But there is a huge difference between saying, "There are a couple of other people who deserved a day before King" and saying "King's day is not really a holiday" AFTER the honor is made. We all have our own ideas about who should get an honor, and the people we choose don't always get that honor, but as long as the winner is chosen from a list of people pretty close to the top we accept it.

We only reject the winner if we feel that the honoree is so far down the list that having them win it makes the whole award meaningless. If your favorite for Most Valuable Player hit .360 with 40 home runs, and he loses to a guy who hit .300 with 50 home runs, you might not like it but you have to admit the winner had something going for him. If the guy who wins, though, hits .265 with 10 home runs, yo might conclude that the honor is totally meaningless.

That is what the bridge woman at Squinney's development is essentially saying about King's holiday. That it is so totally meaningless a holiday that it constitutes an outrage for her weekly bridge game to be cancelled so the clubhouse can be used for an event celebrating it. Despite the fact that the clubhouse is used to celebrate such holidays as Halloween, St Patrick's Day and probably a slew of others which nobody gets off from work but which most people celebrate anyway. It is not really possible to believe that there is not a racial motivation behind this woman's stance-not that she didn't favor the creation of the holiday, but her being so opposed to it's celbration.

I hope this thread doesn't end here. I would like to see how this thing turns out, to see how far this woman takes it. Will she go so far as to show up with her bridge friends at the event and try to set up a bridge game while the celebration is going on? Will she try something else?

Squinney's thread has given us an interesting vignette into how politics can affect our everyday lives. I'd like to see how it turns out.

A point well taken KW.

I have never begrudged Martin Luther King Day. If there was a limit on these holidays, perhaps an argument could be made that there have been Americans who should have been higher on the list than MLK, but there really is no argument that King was a great American and deserves national honor.

The notion that such an honor is a travesty, though, is not, to my way of thinking, much further afield than the notion that to question the honor is heresy.

Someone's failure to honor King's contributions to our nation may indicate ignorance and even rise to racism, but not blasphemy.

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

man that really struck a nerve close to home with you didn't it?

Oh, of course it did. You 'net tough-guys are so..."manly."

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

can't let it go

There some irony there.

**Adds the obligatory **

The notion that such an honor is a travesty, though, is not, to my way of thinking, much further afield than the notion that to question the honor is heresy. ]

I just questioned the honor myself by agreeing with you that there are a very few people who possibly deserve a day more than King. However, this woman is clearly going far beyone questioning the honor.

Finn d'Abuzz wrote:

Someone's failure to honor King's contributions to our nation may indicate ignorance and even rise to racism, but not blasphemy.

I accuse her of racism, not blasphemy. When one goes so far as to maintain that it is outrageous to cancel a weekly bridge game because the venue-which was frequently holds celebrations of minor holidays such as St Patrick's Day, Halloween and Valentine's Day with no complaints from the residents-is being used to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, then you are doing your level best to send a derogatory message about the holiday and the people who might cherish it. And when the complainer includes her very own variation of the old bigot's argument, "and even THEIR OWN KIND admit it", any possible doubts evaporate.

Please remember that nobody is requiring this woman to show up at the celebration. Only to recognize that it actually is a minor holiday, so don't throw a stinking hissy fit when the clubhouse, which is built for the enjoyment of ALL the residents in the development, is being used for a Martin Luther King Day celebration. Just as it is used for celebrations of so many other minor holidays.

My point is that, reasonably people can disagree with Martin Luther King's actions and decide that he is unworthy of honor and celebration and not be racist.

I think if people generally "disagree with King's actions", then they can't credibly be considered "reasonable".