a short rant in praise of MLK
In the shower I was thinking about King.
As a kid my father dissed the guy as "just a cheerleader," and thanks to basic American whitewashing, I was in my 30s by the time I really appreciated MLK for what he was willing to say, and *how* he said it. You read his speeches, and sure, he's persuasive and has good points. But you *listen* to them and you're willing to march next to him right towards a line of very racist and angry authorities. (Okay, except "I Have a Dream," that's like the tamest introduction you can have to King and we've all had it.)
There's exactly one other speaker I've ever heard quite as good, and by sheer chance another Black guy hailed as a civil rights champion - and I'm pretty sure most of us feel Obama really dropped the ball or worse.
Now AFAIK King never tried to build a political career off what he was doing, I'm pretty sure because he knew people would scream about it if he had. But he still comes across as doing what he was doing *because* it needed doing (does not hurt that the guy did all of it while pretty sure someone would kill him for it). So... that made him basically a cheerleader, and y'know, a cheerleader who gets people to do stuff and who also doesn't promptly sell us all out is a damn good thing.
We were lucky we had him.
re: a short rant in praise of MLK
@Leucrotta I'm gonna come right out and say it, it sounds like one of your father's biggest goddamn failures is NOT even being able to be a cheerleader for the people who needed him to be one, so he can basically go fuck himself. >___<
re: a short rant in praise of MLK
@zebratron2084 I understand most of how my Dad got to be that fucked up, including being pretty conservative for being a theoretically left leaning New Yorker, but it's still difficult to deal with. He can be a really good parent at times but it's VERY patchy, very uneven, it's this combination of whether he feels like being kind, has enough spoons to notice where he isn't, etc etc.