MLK--Monumental Man
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a complex man, to say the least. Now he’s a monumental man.
Despised and investigated by J. Edgar Hoover for a variety of anti-American activities, idolized by his followers for his struggles on behalf of African-Americans, held in contempt by Jackie Kennedy, unparalled leader of the Civil Rights Movement, MLK now has an imposing monument on four acres erected in his honor on the Washington Mall.
The controversial 30 foot, 16 ton Chinese-sculpted statue, 11 feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, was 20 years in the making at a cost of some $120 million. It was finally dedicated on October 16th after an earthquake and Hurricane Irene spoiled the planned opening on the anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Another earthquake of controversy ensued following the dedication. Among other critics, some objected to the failure to incorporate reference to God anywhere on a memorial to a Baptist minister and poet Maya Angelou contended the main inscription on the Buddha-esque monument “makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit.”
The abbreviated King quotation reads, ”I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” More than twittish arrogance, the words create the image of a drum and bugle corps leader.
In an startlingly frank article on the Dream speech and the monument by an African-American columnist, Robert E. Pierre observes that King might not recognize either the monument inscription or himself today based on that inscription.
Newsday titled the publication of Pierre’s piece in its printed edition, “Let Memorial Stand for the Real MLK.” Online, Newsday re-titled the article, ”Pierre: Recalling MLK the Revolutionary,” a more accurate representation, more reflective of who and what Rev. King really was. (http://tiny.cc/npxa4)
As Pierre points out, the “content of their character” and “table of brotherhood” parts of King’s “Dream” speech were secondary to his incitement to revolution and his ominous prediction that “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
He’s right. There’s not much character content and brotherhood associated with violent revolutions nor in King’s acknowledged Communist sympathies.
Pierre does mention that little-known facet of King’s career but fails to comment on the minister’s womanizing, the reasons J. Edgar considered him a national security threat, or how MLK’s supporters pressured federal and state legislators into declaring the only national holiday honoring an individual American. (Washington and Lincoln were lumped together in “President’s Day” in 1971.)
Pierre does reveal, without apology, that King was more viscerally revolutionary and outwardly radical than most of his contemporary counterparts or subsequent idolizers would care to admit. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5747.)
Showing posts with label dr. martin luther king jr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dr. martin luther king jr. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Politically Correcting Jackie O.
Politically Correcting Jackie O.
People are sometimes tough to pigeonhole. Their public personas and statements are often at variance with their private selves and thoughts and we usually don’t learn much about the latter.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was such a person.
Mrs. Kennedy was one of the most beautiful, most beloved, and most discreet women ever to reign as First Lady of the United States. Properly deferring to her husband, she rarely if ever spoke out on controversial issues, as opposed to prior and succeeding graceless Democrat first ladies who have used their unelected positions as platforms to preach, harangue, and run for future office.
That is not to say Jackie didn’t hold strong opinions, she just didn’t air them.
Her views on a noted contemporary won’t get much airing or publicity since they don’t fit well with today’s mainstream media’s chronic case of political correctness and since her views contradict the prevailing attitudes toward an American “icon.” In a word, Jackie thought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a “terrible” man, so terrible she couldn’t even look at his pictures.
That revelation is heard in long-shelved audio tapes, an “oral history,” which ABC’s Diane Sawyer is featuring on in a two-hour commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Jack Kennedy’s inauguration as president.
In “Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words,” words spoken and audiotaped in interviews in 1964 which she insisted not be made public in her lifetime, Jackie expressed a number of opinions all of which will be thought-provoking, some of which aren’t politically correct in 2011.
The rumor mill is all agog over possibilities the tapes may include salacious material on the Kennedys’ private lives although that’s improbable considering Jackie’s demure nature. However, they surely will include her conviction that LBJ was complicit in the president’s murder which will become the major media focus on the tapes.
On the other hand, what will surely get little MSM play is Jackie’s distinctly negative comments on MLK since, well, that’s just not PC.
Among other things, Mrs. Kennedy said, ”I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man’s terrible. . ."
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5402.)
People are sometimes tough to pigeonhole. Their public personas and statements are often at variance with their private selves and thoughts and we usually don’t learn much about the latter.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was such a person.
Mrs. Kennedy was one of the most beautiful, most beloved, and most discreet women ever to reign as First Lady of the United States. Properly deferring to her husband, she rarely if ever spoke out on controversial issues, as opposed to prior and succeeding graceless Democrat first ladies who have used their unelected positions as platforms to preach, harangue, and run for future office.
That is not to say Jackie didn’t hold strong opinions, she just didn’t air them.
Her views on a noted contemporary won’t get much airing or publicity since they don’t fit well with today’s mainstream media’s chronic case of political correctness and since her views contradict the prevailing attitudes toward an American “icon.” In a word, Jackie thought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a “terrible” man, so terrible she couldn’t even look at his pictures.
That revelation is heard in long-shelved audio tapes, an “oral history,” which ABC’s Diane Sawyer is featuring on in a two-hour commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Jack Kennedy’s inauguration as president.
In “Jacqueline Kennedy: In Her Own Words,” words spoken and audiotaped in interviews in 1964 which she insisted not be made public in her lifetime, Jackie expressed a number of opinions all of which will be thought-provoking, some of which aren’t politically correct in 2011.
The rumor mill is all agog over possibilities the tapes may include salacious material on the Kennedys’ private lives although that’s improbable considering Jackie’s demure nature. However, they surely will include her conviction that LBJ was complicit in the president’s murder which will become the major media focus on the tapes.
On the other hand, what will surely get little MSM play is Jackie’s distinctly negative comments on MLK since, well, that’s just not PC.
Among other things, Mrs. Kennedy said, ”I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man’s terrible. . ."
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5402.)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The Tribulations of Martin Luther King's Memorial and Memory
The Tribulations of Martin Luther King's Memorial and Memory
The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial just can’t catch a break.
Twenty-five years in the making, the $120 million, 30 foot statue set on 4 acres near the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin may have its official, opening day ceremonies spoiled by Hurricane Irene but if that were the only element to tarnish the festivities it would be a blessing to King’s memory and his admirers.
The fact the representation of King, eleven feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, was incongruously placed on the National Mall as the only monument not memorializing an American president or our fallen soldiers wouldn’t dismay those admirers who would think that all very fitting and proper but other facts could and should dismay them.
For example, the sculpture makes him look more like a ticked-off, giant Buddha than a black revolutionary, which is understandable in view of another fact, that the 16 ton statue was carved out of Chinese granite by Lei Yixin, a master sculptor from China’s Yunan province who includes on his resume’ two renderings of the late Chinese dictator, Chairman Mao Zedong.
One would have thought that King’s family would have insisted on an African-American sculptor to reflect his heritage and labors on behalf of blacks in America but one would then be wrong. His son, Martin Luther King III, is very supportive and claims, ”This particular artist: he has done a good job.”
Some non-family members have disagreed and protested that he would be “turning over in his grave” if he knew the truth. (http://tgr.ph/qAzu0P)
Of course, the King family has a vested interest, in addition to the obvious, in the memorial.
Financing for the project came principally from fundraisers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument Foundation which has paid over $832,000 to the King family . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5275)
The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial just can’t catch a break.
Twenty-five years in the making, the $120 million, 30 foot statue set on 4 acres near the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin may have its official, opening day ceremonies spoiled by Hurricane Irene but if that were the only element to tarnish the festivities it would be a blessing to King’s memory and his admirers.
The fact the representation of King, eleven feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, was incongruously placed on the National Mall as the only monument not memorializing an American president or our fallen soldiers wouldn’t dismay those admirers who would think that all very fitting and proper but other facts could and should dismay them.
For example, the sculpture makes him look more like a ticked-off, giant Buddha than a black revolutionary, which is understandable in view of another fact, that the 16 ton statue was carved out of Chinese granite by Lei Yixin, a master sculptor from China’s Yunan province who includes on his resume’ two renderings of the late Chinese dictator, Chairman Mao Zedong.
One would have thought that King’s family would have insisted on an African-American sculptor to reflect his heritage and labors on behalf of blacks in America but one would then be wrong. His son, Martin Luther King III, is very supportive and claims, ”This particular artist: he has done a good job.”
Some non-family members have disagreed and protested that he would be “turning over in his grave” if he knew the truth. (http://tgr.ph/qAzu0P)
Of course, the King family has a vested interest, in addition to the obvious, in the memorial.
Financing for the project came principally from fundraisers at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Monument Foundation which has paid over $832,000 to the King family . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5275)
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