The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. The ensuing struggle lasted from December 5, 1955 to December 21, 1956 and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional.

The protest was triggered by the arrest of African American seamstress Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955. She was charged for violating racial segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama after refusing to give her seat on a bus to a white man.

Wikipedia - Montgomery Bus Boycot

Shamefully, 50 years later, racism continues to be a problem in America. If you doubt that statement, read this transcript from CNN. I watched, "Out in the Open: Racism in America," last night, and I was not encouraged.

Racism is the open sore of America. It still exist, though it has went somewhat underground. I applaud Zahn and CNN for focusing on this issue. 50 years ago, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Mrs. Parks was no revolutionary, she was a simple woman who was just tired and did not see the justice in giving up her seat. She started a revolution, a revolution that created many martyrs.

Today, 50 years later, things have improved for African Americans in the United States. But problems remain, as the Zahn program so graphically illustrated. So many people want to forget the past. They want to pretend that things are all good. I say to them, "walk a mile in my skin," and tell me that.

I am a successful black man. I have traveled the world, educated myself, speak two languages fluently and have far surpassed the accomplishments of my parents. But I have been called a Nigger. I have felt the sting of discrimination and I have suffered the consequences...

Heroes like Dr. King, Mrs. Parks and the fallen Civil Rights workers, made it possible for my success, by opening doors that were once closed and bolted against me... I sometimes ask myself if 40-50 years later, they would be satisfied with the progress we have made... While I think they would be pleased, but I also think they would still be walking the lines, knowing that while battles have been won, the war is not over.

God Bless the heroes, and let us never forget their sacrifice!

I mean, after winning this honor, all the others seem so trivial!

You need further convincing that the Web is the new Forum? It is the communal hearth arround which all of us gather. Web 2.0 is not just a catch phrase any more. The sale of You Tube to Google, the Rise of Google itself... The phenomenon of My Space... It's a new world, and indeed a new story:

But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.

And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.

Some of us are pioneers in this new world... Our friends ragged on us about our blogging, and for our personal web pages... Those same friends now quietly create their own blogs, or sign up for my space.

We have built massive repositories of information, created virtual worlds and communities, sold billions of dollars in merchandise, created candidates and helped win elections. We have faced down major media operations, and raised millions to help victims of natural disasters.

Netcitizenship has become a common ground, bringing citizens of the world closer together.

But it has also spawned some bad...

Terrorist use the internet to communicate and dispense propaganda.

Scammers from Nigeria, other parts of Africa and Europe, farm tens of thousands of emails a day, to send their ridiculous scam emails, and attempt identity theft through phishing attacks.

Hate Groups use the internet to spread their message of hate.

Scammers of every ilk use the internet as their virtual office...

It's not perfect, but perhaps that is why Time is so RIGHT. The Internet IS the new world, it is a place where all of us can participate Rich and Poor, and where access to a connected computer is all it takes to be heard. A friend of mine and fellow blogger, used to run his popular blog from Library computers... He was homeless and did not own a computer, so he logged on at his local library and contributed to the debate. He inspired me... With all the wants and needs a person in his position must have had... Having a voice in the debate was a priority. It is HIS picture that should grace the cover of time, because despite the contributions of hotchick@xxx.com, and her lingerie shows from her bedroom... It is people like my friend who has led this revolution...

So thank you Time Magazine, for acknowledging us. I have taken the liberty of preparing my cover... After all, all of us would not fit!

From Pensito:

In his run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has made it clear that he'll do or say whatever it takes to appeal to his party's Troglodyte base.

He has flip-flopped on key social issues including abortion and gay rights, both of which he supported when he ran for governor in 2001 - and both of which he did 180s on, after he was elected.

When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004, Gov. Romney made a name for himself in national conservative circles as a champion of traditional marriage by rabidly opposing legalization every step of the way as it moved through the legislature and the courts.

But in 2008, Romney will face a challenge among cave dwelling primary voters: He's a Mormon, a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, which many evangelical types consider to be a satanic polygamist cult.

But hold onto your hat - not only is Mitt Romney a member of the LDS, his great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, had five wives. That's two more than Bill Paxton has on "Big Love."

I lived for six months in Salt Lake City, and even attended Church with some of my Mormon friends there.
To be honest, I formed a very positive opinion of the people, and saw nothing in their church services that disturbed me. In fact, I have had a positive opinion of the LDS church since then (1993), but all that has changed after reading this book, and several others.
I'm sorry but I cant have much respect for a religion that was founded (according to several of the books I have read), by a con man, and which was popularized by a Brute, Con Man and serial polygamist, who probably at minimum encouraged, and possibly even ordered, one of the greatest and most fiendish atrocities ever committed by one group of Americans, against another.

Not to mention a religion that believes God lives on another planet, in a galaxy far, far away, and that all good Mormons will become "Gods...."

Are you weirded out yet? You want someone who believes that kind of thing to Lead our Country? And when was it that they acknowledged Black People as being worthy of the priesthood? 1978? Yeah thats right... Before that, we were simply the sons of Cain, dumb and black and "not lovely." Whatever the hell that means.

I still consider many of the people I met in Salt Lake City to be good people, friends. But the religion is twisted.

This kind of says it all...

I just received this from one of my fraternity brothers this morning... Well worth passing on! Thanks Greg for sharing.

A friend came to my dorm room just to chat while her laundry was drying. As we were chatting, two young freshman came by. One of the boys wanted to "talk" to my friend (as in date). She asked him how old they were, and both of the boys replied 18. My friend and I both laughed hysterically because we are both 22 years old. After my friend left the young men were still hanging around and he wanted to know how he could gain the interest of her. The first thing I told him to do was to pull up his pants. He asked why, then said he like saggin' his pants. I told him to come over to my computer and spell the word saggin'. Then I told him to write the word saggin' backwards. S-A-G-G-I-N N-I-G-G-A-S I told him the origin of that look was from prison. Men in prison wore their pants low when they were spoken for. The other reason their pants looked like that was because they were not allowed to have belts because prisoners were likely to try to commit suicide. We as young black people have to be the ones to effect change. We are dying. The media has made a mockery of the Black American. Even our brothers and sisters from Africa don't take us seriously. Something as simple as pulling up your pants and standing with your head high could make the biggest difference in the world's perception of us. It is time to do right by ourselves. We need to love and embrace each other. No one is going to do for us. It all comes down to perception. What people perceive, is what is reality to them. We have to change not only the media's perception of us, but we need to change the perception of ourselves. Remember all eyes are on you Black Man. All eyes are on you Black Woman. All eyes are on you Black Child. People are waiting for us to mess up. We have let not only the media, but the government and the world taint the pure essence of us. They have stripped our culture down to the point where we only believe we can become rappers and sports athletes. We are so much more. To all my black men, Its time to stand up. There are billions of Black Women who want to do nothing more than worship the ground that you walk on. We are so in love with your potential. We want to have your back, we want to love, support and cherish every ounce of your being. But with that you have to show that you are willing to be the head of our households. You have to prove yourselves worthy of our submission. We need you to be hard working...Not a hustler. We need you to seek higher education, to seek spirituality. We need you to stand! And trust us, we will have your back. We know that it gets hard, we know you get weary. Trust and believe that there is nothing that a Black Woman and a Black Man can't handle with God on their sides. To all my Black Women: It is also time for us to stand up. It is time for us to stop using our bodies as our primary form of communication. It is time to be that virtuous woman that Proverbs spoke of. We can not sit by the way side, while our men our dying by the masses. We are the epitome of Black Love. It starts within us. We need to speak with conviction to let not only our Black Men know, but the world know that we are the Mother's of this world. We are so powerful. We are so beautiful. We need to love and embrace every blessing God has given us physically emotionally and spiritually. For all My Black Children: We need to love them. We need to teach them. We need to stand up for them. We need to protect them. We need to show them that there is no "get rich quick." We need to tell them that they WILL die trying if the submit to a life of crime and deceit. We need to teach our children to that no one will love them the way we can. And being a basket ball player or a rapper is not reality, its not realistic and a small percentage of people ever make it that far. We need to teach our children that we can be better than the rappers and athletes. We can be the owners of these sports teams, we can be the CEO's of our fortune 500 companies. We need to believe in literacy. I am almost certain if we were to look back to the 1930's and 40's, the literacy rates for Black American Children are probably still the same.

Ed Bradley was one of my heroes. He was the reason I started watching 60 Minutes. He was a role model when we did not have many. And he achieved role model status not by swinging a bat, or dribbling a ball, but by being an articulate voice to America. And for 27 years he served the interest of the American people by bringing them the news, and the truth.

He was a giant to me. And I will miss him.

For some reason, this story does not surprise me.... That Clint Eastwood neglected to portray blacks as participants at Iwo Jima, does... Clint is not known as a racist, and is in fact well respected by Blacks in Hollywood, especially after producing movies like Bird. I am willing to cut him some slack on this one. Fact is, the omission may just help to bring some acknowledgment to Black Veterans of WWII.

Absent from history: the black soldiers at Iwo Jima
By Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Guardian (UK)

Nearly 900 African-Americans fought on the Japanese
island but not one appears in Clint Eastwood's Oscar-
tipped film, writes Dan Glaister

On February 19 1945 Thomas McPhatter found himself on a
landing craft heading toward the beach on Iwo Jima.

"There were bodies bobbing up all around, all these
dead men," said the former US marine, now 83 and living
in San Diego. "Then we were crawling on our bellies and
moving up the beach. I jumped in a foxhole and there
was a young white marine holding his family pictures.
He had been hit by shrapnel, he was bleeding from the
ears, nose and mouth. It frightened me. The only thing
I could do was lie there and repeat the Lord's prayer,
over and over and over."

Sadly, Sgt McPhatter's experience is not mirrored in
Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's big-budget,
Oscar-tipped film of the battle for the Japanese
island. While the battle scene's in the film - which
opens today in the US - show scores of young soldiers
in combat, none of them are African-American. Yet
almost 900 African-American troops took part in the
battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter.

The film tells the story of the raising of the stars
and stripes over Mount Suribachi at the tip of the
island. The moment was captured in a photograph that
became a symbol of the US war effort. Eastwood's film
follows the marines in the picture, including the
Native American Ira Hayes, as they were removed from
combat operations to promote the sale of government war
bonds.

Mr McPhatter, who went on to serve in Vietnam and rose
to the rank of lieutenant commander in the US navy,
even had a part in the raising of the flag. "The man
who put the first flag up on Iwo Jima got a piece of
pipe from me to put the flag up on," he says. That,
too, is absent from the film.

"Of all the movies that have been made of Iwo Jima, you
never see a black face," said Mr McPhatter. "This is
the last straw. I feel like I've been denied, I've been
insulted, I've been mistreated. But what can you do? We
still have a strong underlying force in my country of
rabid racism."

Melton McLaurin, author of the forthcoming The Marines
of Montford Point and an accompanying documentary to be
released in February, says that there were hundreds of
black soldiers on Iwo Jima from the first day of the
35-day battle. Although most of the black marine units
were assigned ammunition and supply roles, the chaos of
the landing soon undermined the battle plan.

"When they first hit the beach the resistance was so
fierce that they weren't shifting ammunition, they were
firing their rifles," said Dr McLaurin.

The failure to transfer the active role played by
African-Americans at Iwo Jima to the big screen does
not surprise him. "One of the marines I interviewed
said that the people who were filming newsreel footage
on Iwo Jima deliberately turned their cameras away when
black folks came by. Blacks are not surprised at all
when they see movies set where black troops were
engaged and never show on the screen. I would like to
say that it was from ignorance but anybody can do
research and come up with books about African-Americans
in world war two. I think it has to do with box office
and what producers of movies think Americans really
want to see."

He added: "I want to see these guys get their due.
They're just so anxious to have their story told and to
have it known."

Roland Durden, another black marine, landed on the
beach on the third day. "When we hit the shore we were
loaded with ammunition and the Japanese hit us with
mortar." Private Durden was soon assigned to burial
detail, "burying the dead day in, day out. It seemed
like endless days. They treated us like workmen rather
than marines."

Mr Durden, too, is wearied but unsurprised at the
omissions in Eastwood's film. "We're always left out of
the films, from John Wayne on," he said. Mr Durden
ascribes to both the conspiracy as well as the cock-up
theory of history. "They didn't want blacks to be
heroes. This was pre-1945, pre civil rights."

Eastwood and the makers of the film, Warner Bros and
Dreamworks, did not comment for this article. The
omission was first remarked upon in a review by Fox
News columnist Roger Friedman, who noted that the
history of black involvement at Iwo Jima was recorded
in several books, including Christopher Moore's recent
Fighting for America: Black Soldiers - the Unsung
Heroes of World War II. "They weren't in the background
at all," said Moore.

via his brother...

Editor's note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat's birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice ... until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

And I can promise you, the conservatives who drapped Pat in the flag and made him a hero of the conservative movement are NOT going to pick up on this story. Pat Tillman was a Hero, just like all the other soldiers who signed up for this dangerous mission, believing they were doing so to protect our country. It is a shame that they were decieved, and even more of a shame that the American people have become such cowards that they are willing to follow sheepishly an administration that has laid waste to our American ideals about Freedom, Liberty and "doing the right thing!"

I am an eBay fanatic, I admit it. I scour email at least a couple of times a week looking for a deal, and I have found some priceless ones, including an original Vietnam era Zippo Lighter, carried into battle by a Green Beret. (Now if that sucker could talk... The stories it would no doubt tell...

But today, I found the greatest treasure of all! A Masonic Ring from 1939!

I lost my own Consistory ring years ago, and have often looked at purchasing another. I often check eBay for good deals, and have on more than one occasion considered purchasing one. While I am entitled to wear the double headed eagle of a 32nd Degree Mason, I have often considered the classic "yod," ring, to be the essence of what a high degree Mason should be.

Simple, elegant, and powerful. This is the kind of ring I imagine my Brother Knights of antiquity wearing.

What is special about this ring, is that it was once worn by a brother. I will never know him, but we will be bonded throughout the ages by this simple band of gold, and the ritual that entitles us to wear it.

I can only imagine the history! 1939! This ring was worn by a Brother 21 years before I was born.

I will attempt to honor the memory of my Brother by bringing honor to the ring. I am kind of overwhelmed at the idea of owning such a precious piece of history.

I got this from C&L. It is one of the most powerful things I have seen.

In the war against our constitution and against the American people. I certainly hope so. For now, enjoy it for what it is... A Powerful piece of commentary!

Others blogging it...

The Huffington Post, The Mahablog, LamontBlog, Brilliant at Breakfast, Connecticut Bob and AMERICAblog

I have not had time to vette this information, but it came from one of my well educated Fraternity Brothers, so I am going to publish it. Interesting information, and sad...

BLACK SPENDING (USA Today)

Next time you see that 'player of the year' flawsin'
in that 2005 Chrysler
300 sittin' on 23's while he's pulling it into a parking stall of a rented apartment hand him this article.

USA Today article on Black Spending Habits: These are tough economic times, especially for African-Americans, for whom the unemployment rate is more than 10%. Alarmingly, rather than belt-tightening, the response has been to spend more. In many poor neighborhoods, one is likely to notice satellite dishes and expensive new cars.

According to Target Market, a company that trac ks black consumer spending, blacks spends a significant amount of their income on depreciable products.

In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived; we spent
$22.9 billion
($22,900,000,000.00) on clothes, $3.2 billion
($3,000,000,000.00) on
electronics and $11.6 billion ($11,000,000,000.00) on furniture to put into homes that, in many cases, were rented.

Among our favorite purchases are cars and liquor.
Blacks make up only 12%
of the U.S. population yet account for 30% of the country's Scotch consumption. Detroit, 80% black, is the world's No.1 market for Cognac (Pass The Co---------).

So impressed was Lincoln with the $46.7 b illion
($46,000,000,000) that
blacks spent on cars that the automaker commissioned Sean "P. Diddy"
Combs, the entertainment and fashion mogul, to design a limited-edition Navigator complete with six plasma screens, three DVD players and a Sony PlayStation2.

The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002. This short-sighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future.

The National Urban League's "State of Black America 2004" report found that fewer than 50% of black families owned their homes compared with more than 70% of whites.

According to published reports, the Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households where blacks and whites had roughly the same household incomes, whites saved nearly 20% more each month for retirement, and 30% of African-Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings.

While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of African-Americans do. Certainly, higher rates of unemployment, income disparity and credit discrimination are financial impediments to the economic vitality of blacks, but so are our consumer tastes. By finding the courage to change our spending habits, we might be surprised at how far the $631 billion
($631,000,000,000.00) we now earn
might take us.

We all send thousands of jokes through e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages regarding life-affirming choices, people think twice about sharing. So please pass this on.
Knowledge is POWER!

We must educate our youth.

Tiser Turner, Jr.

I always have a good chuckle when I hear Right Wingers complaining about Bush Hatred. Especially considering their rancor for Clinton. This poll is a hoot!

(CNN) -- In a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues.

The poll of 1,021 adult Americans was conducted May 5-7 by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Respondents favored Clinton by greater than 2-to-1 margins when asked who did a better job at handling the economy (63 percent Clinton, 26 percent Bush) and solving the problems of ordinary Americans (62 percent Clinton, 25 percent Bush).

On foreign affairs, the margin was 56 percent to 32 percent in Clinton's favor; on taxes, it was 51 percent to 35 percent for Clinton; and on handling natural disasters, it was 51 percent to 30 percent, also favoring Clinton.

Moreover, 59 percent said Bush has done more to divide the country, while only 27 percent said Clinton had.

When asked which man was more honest as president, poll respondents were more evenly divided, with the numbers -- 46 percent Clinton to 41 percent Bush -- falling within the poll's margin of error. The same was true for a question on handling national security: 46 percent said Clinton performed better; 42 percent picked Bush.

I am sure all 1000 of the participants were not Democrats...

Note: Yeah I meant Scrub, not shrub. It's a Black thing...

One finds a treasure on eBay.
I have always been fascinated by the heroism of the men and women who faught in Vietnam. My Brother was a two tour Veteran. So when I get a chance to buy memorabilia from that period, I snap it up. I found this lighter on eBay this week.

Knowing the history of the Fabled 1st Special Forces Group, I can only imagine the history this lighter must have. It will have a special place on my mantle.

I dont expect he will be eulogized on many blogs today, but a Giant has passed. I would not have even known, if I did not read Anderson Cooper's incredible piece on his blog.

My first exposure to Gordon Parks, came when I was nine years old, and saw The Learning Tree, The first Major Studio film directed by an African American. Gordon went on to Direct, Shaft and Shaft's big Score,two of the first of the so called Blackploitation movies. But his career as a Director was shortlived. His real mark on the world will come from his body of work as a Photographer.

From Wikipedia:

At the age of 25, Parks purchased a used camera from a pawn shop and became a fashion and personality photographer in Chicago. His first substantial work came when he began work in 1942 as a documentary photographer with the Farm Security Administration, an agency created to call attention to and produce a historical record of social and cultural conditions across the country. At FSA, Parks worked as a trainee under Roy Stryker.

The Washington Post wrote: "During this period, he took what became one of his signature photographs, a picture of Ella Watson, a cleaning woman who worked in the agency's building. He positioned Watson in front of an American flag, a broom in one hand and a mop in the other. He named the picture American Gothic, Washington, D.C. The photograph captured his style of focusing on one particular person to illustrate a broad social theme." [1]

After FSA closed, Parks became the first black photographer in the Office of War Information. Parks went on to work for Vogue magazine and Life Magazine. He stayed with Life from 1948 to 1968, becoming known for his photo essays on the effects of poverty and the civil rights movement. Parks' 1961 photo essay on an impoverished Brazilian boy named Flavio published in Life inspired donations that were credited with saving the boy's life, and to help the family build a house.

Parks was a trailblazer all of his life, and his legacy will be his work... His masterful photography, his films and the doors he opened for all that followed him.

Rest in Peace Maestro...

Shani Davis just became the first African-American man to win Olympic gold at the Winter Olympics! He won the 1000m speed skating race.

Not since the Jamaican Bob Sled team, have I been so Proud! So like Steel, I am going to take a few minutes to savor this, and to ponder the possibilities, and shit to just be PROUD to be American!

On my Post on the Coretta Scott King Funeral...

This is for Jack of Random Fate, who posted on the subject. But it is also for everyone else who dissagrees with me. I feel ya Jack, and I can understand how those who dissagree with me feel about the issue. Many of them have no real bonifides to say what should or should not be said at Mrs. King's wedding... But that is another story altogether.

I think in the end, it is all about what her family thinks, and I have been too busy with business to look arround and see if there have been any comments. If anyone knows of any, please post in comments.
As for my own feelings... Let me tell you a short story. My father died when I was 18. At his funeral there was an older man wearing a KKK ring. I as a young radical wanted to kick his ass. My mother seeing my anger pulled me asside and said a few words I will never forget. "Your father was respected by many people, including some whose beliefs were directly contrary to his. That man came here to pay respects to your daddy... leave him be..." The man later approached me and told me some stories about my Dad that I have never forgotten, perhaps because of who the story teller was, perhaps because they showed the respect my mother spoke of. My older brothers and sisters all spoke to him, as did my Mom, and he had a kind word for all of them...

My mother was no Coretta Scott King, but she was a great and classy lady, like Mrs. King. I think in her own way, she was proud that my fathers legacy was so strong, that it bought even the enemy to the table. The Gentleman was respected, and not a word was spoken about who he was. All of us had our opinion, and outside the Masons Hall where my father lay in rest, that opinion was expressed. But never was the line crossed during the ceremony... Perhaps because NONE of us really knew what Daddy would have liked us to say or do, but we knew he would have been proud that even an old foe had to give him his "props." So that is how I feel about the issue. I dont speak for Mrs. King or her family, but knowing the classy lady that she was, I CAN'T believe she would have snubbed the President of the United States, even though we know she stood in contrary to most of what he stands for....

From Steve Gilliard:

What? They think we don't know they're racists? They hated Dr. King and his wife in life and now in death. They hate that blacks and latinos no longer live in peonage. Only one of their bought and paid for fools would attack how Mrs. King was buried. To the rest of it, it was a fittintg tribute and making Bush sit there for hours was wonderful. He was told the truth and he couldn't run.

My answer, where the fuck is my check?

Please folks, we are all going to have opinions on this. I have stated mine, but I will be damned if I am going to be called a sellout because I dont believe Mrs. King's funeral should be used as a political platform, at least not in that way. All this rantin' and ravin' is just another way of being a fucking crybaby, and I for one am sick of it. I don't give a rats ass if I have to turn in my progressive card... I believe we need to get off the bullshit and start coming up with some ideas to sell our ideology, and I for one have never been a person to sell myself or my product by being a clone of the worst of my competition.

Mrs. King and her husband fought for something, and they did it with class. King was not affraid to invite the enemy to his table, and rather than confronting that enemy with anger, he sought to teach and inform and show them the error of thier ways.

It is shameful that the day after the lady was put to rest, we are using her funeral as a dividing force, instead of celebrating her wonderful legacy. Do any of you actually think that she is happy with the ANGER that is being expressed today, instead of people celebrating her life and talking about how we continue her work? And for all the so called big blogs on the progressive side who are using this as a rallying cry... Grow the fuck up. I grew up during the civil rights struggle. I have been called Nigger and worse. I met Mrs. King, and my parents marched with Dr. King.

If you want to use the name of the Kings to advance the progressive cause, do what they did... Roll up your sleeves, put down your fucking Latte and organize REAL grass roots movements, not internet cluster fucks. Because HELLO, despite all your BLOGPOWER, we still lost in 2004... King was not affraid to go to Jail, and niether was Coretta. They were not afraid to go into the slums and shanty towns and organize voters. They were on the front lines in a war that has went low impact but continues. Until you are ready to do more than sermonize and attack from behind a keyboard, you have no right to claim their legacy or to define it...

Hat Tip CT

I thought some of you might enjoy having this as a little piece of history.

Coretta Scott King's Funeral Program - Download PDF Here

Please don't link directly to the download. If you want to link, link to the post. Thank you...

In cruising the blogsphere for perspective on Mrs. King, I found this on James Joyner's blog...

She was a revered figure--as Juan Williams put it on NPR, the "queen" of the civil rights movement--solely for the fact that she was Dr. King's widow. She has spent the last several decades doggedly fighting against any attempt to portray King as anything but a Christ-like figure and has succeeded in elevating him to iconic status beyond his actual role in gaining equality for black Americans.

Having met Mrs. King, I have little argument with James about her efforts to preserve the memory of her husband sin flaws...

But I wonder why James feels he can be a judge of the impact King had on the role of gaining equality for African Americans. Having been associated with the movement nearly from my first steps, and having lived through Dr. Kings assassination, I can say that NO ONE had more of an impact.

I would add, that though the King families iron control of image and copyrights to Dr. King's speeches and documents are a bone of contention for many, and while I would like to have seen "I have a dream," put in the public domain, some forget that Mrs. King had every right to do so. And that much of her support was gleaned from that material after the death of her husband. I am also sure that at least part of that effort was based on keeping her husbands work off of cheap t-shirts and head shop posters.

From Yahoo News:

Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died at the age of 78.

Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.

"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement. The family said she died during the night. The widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. suffered a serious stroke and heart attack last August.

"It's a bleak morning for me and for many people and yet it's a great morning because we have a chance to look at her and see what she did and who she was," poet Maya Angelou said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"It's bleak because I can't - many of us can't hear her sweet voice - but it's great because she did live, and she was ours. I mean African-Americans and white Americans and Asians, Spanish-speaking - she belonged to us and that's a great thing."

Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff and offered to allow King to lie in state at the Capitol. There was no immediate response to the offer, the governor's office said.

King died at Santa Monica Health Institute, a holistic health center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, south of San Diego, said her sister, Edythe Scott Bagley of Cheyney, Pa.

She had gone to California to rest and be with family, according to Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who broke the news on NBC's "Today" show.

At a news conference, Young said Coretta King's fortitude rivaled that of her husband.

"She was strong if not stronger than he was," Young said. "She lived a graceful and beautiful life, and in spite of all of the difficulties, she managed a graceful and beautiful passing."

She was