I meant to post this last night, but there were enough other posts. Last night was the 50th anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr’s last speech. He was, of course, assassinated 50 years ago today. Before I post the video of the speech, as well as the transcript, I wanted to highlight LBJ’s response to the news of MLK’s assassination. President Johnson’s initial response was to immediately try to do something substantive for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was to head off potential violence.
During a meeting the following day, LBJ acknowledged the feelings of the protestors. “If I were a kid in Harlem. I know what I’d be thinking right now: I’d be thinking that the whites have declared open season on my people, and they’re going to pick us off one by one unless I get a gun and pick them off first.”
Just think about that statement for a moment. Fifty years ago, President Johnson was able to clearly, succinctly, and accurately enunciate the reality of race relations in the US. What is even more astounding is that for all the progress that has been made, we’re right back to a place where this statement could be made given how the current administration approaches these issues and in light of both the explosive growth of domestic white Christian extremist movements and the stark differences in how law enforcement relates to and treats white Americans versus Americans of color.
Here’s the full speech. The transcript is below the fold.
Here’s the transcript:
Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. [Laughter] It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you, and Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world.
I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined [Audience:] (Right) to go on anyhow. (Yeah, All right) Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” I would take my mental flight by Egypt (Yeah), and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, on toward the Promised Land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there. (All right)
I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon [Applause], and I would watch them around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Oh yeah)
I would go on even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire (Yes), and I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Keep on)
I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and aesthetic life of man. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah)
I would even go by the way that the man for whom I’m named had his habitat, and I would watch Martin Luther as he tacks his ninety-five theses on the door at the church of Wittenberg. But I wouldn’t stop there. (All right) But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah) [Applause]
I would come on up even to 1863 and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn’t stop there. (Yeah) [Applause]
I would even come up to the early thirties and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation, and come with an eloquent cry that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” But I wouldn’t stop there. (All right)
Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy.” [Applause]
Now that’s a strange statement to make because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. (All right, Yes) And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. Something is happening in our world. (Yeah) The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same: “We want to be free.” [Applause]
And another reason I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. (Yes) Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. But now no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today. [Applause]
And also, in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done and done in a hurry to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty; their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. (All right) [Applause] Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that he’s allowed me to be in Memphis. (Oh yeah)
I can remember [Applause], I can remember when Negroes were just going around, as Ralph has said so often, scratching where they didn’t itch and laughing when they were not tickled. [Laughter, applause] But that day is all over. (Yeah) [Applause] We mean business now and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. (Yeah) [Applause] And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. (Yeah) We are saying [Applause], we are saying that we are God’s children. (Yeah) [Applause] And if we are God’s children, we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.
Now what does all this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. (Yeah) We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula of doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. [Applause] But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. [Applause] Now let us maintain unity.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. (Right) The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. [Applause] Now we’ve got to keep attention on that. (That’s right) That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window breaking. (That’s right) I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that 1,300 sanitation workers are on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn’t get around to that. (Yeah) [Applause]
Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again (Yeah), in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be (Yeah) [Applause] and force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God’s children here suffering (That’s right), sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That’s the issue. (That’s right) And we’ve got to say to the nation, we know how it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory. [Applause]
We aren’t going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces. They don’t know what to do. I’ve seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there, we would move out of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church day after day. By the hundreds we would move out, and Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth, and they did come. But we just went before the dogs singing, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around.” [Applause] Bull Connor next would say, “Turn the fire hoses on.” (Yeah) And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn’t know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn’t relate to the trans-physics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. [Applause] And we went before the fire hoses. (Yeah) We had known water. (All right) If we were Baptist or some other denominations, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist or some others, we had been sprinkled. But we knew water. That couldn’t stop us. [Applause]
And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them, and we’d go on before the water hoses and we would look at it. And we’d just go on singing, “Over my head, I see freedom in the air.” (Yeah) [Applause] And then we would be thrown into paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. (All right) And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, “Take ’em off.” And they did, and we would just go on in the paddy wagon singing, “We Shall Overcome.” (Yeah) And every now and then we’d get in jail, and we’d see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers (Yes) and being moved by our words and our songs. (Yes) And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn’t adjust to (All right), and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we on our struggle in Birmingham. [Applause]
Now we’ve got to go on in Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us when we go out Monday. (Yes) Now about injunctions. We have an injunction and we’re going into court tomorrow morning (Go ahead) to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper. [Applause] If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand some of these illegal injunctions. Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they haven’t committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read (Yes) of the freedom of speech. (Yes) Somewhere I read (All right) of the freedom of press. (Yes) Somewhere I read (Yes) that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. [Applause] And so just as I say we aren’t going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren’t going to let any injunction turn us around. [Applause] We are going on. We need all of you.
You know, what’s beautiful to me is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. (Amen) It’s a marvelous picture. (Yes) Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somewhere the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones (Yes), and whenever injustice is around he must tell it. (Yes) Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, who said, “When God Speaks, who can but prophesy?” (Yes) Again with Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Yes) Somehow the preacher must say with Jesus, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me (Yes), because He hath anointed me (Yes), and He’s anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.” (Go ahead)
And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years. He’s been to jail for struggling; he’s been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggling; but he’s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. [Applause] Reverend Ralph Jackson, Billy Kyles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank all of them, and I want you to thank them because so often preachers aren’t concerned about anything but themselves. [Applause] And I’m always happy to see a relevant ministry. It’s all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism, but ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. [Applause] It’s all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here and His children who can’t eat three square meals a day. [Applause] It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. [Applause] This is what we have to do.
Now the other thing we’ll have to do is this: always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now we are poor people, individually we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the American Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That’s power right there, if we know how to pool it. (Yeah) [Applause]
We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles; we don’t need any Molotov cocktails. (Yes) We just need to go around to these stores (Yes sir), and to these massive industries in our country (Amen), and say, “God sent us by here (All right) to say to you that you’re not treating His children right. (That’s right) And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment where God’s children are concerned. Now if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.” [Applause]
And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight (Amen) to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. (Yeah) [Applause] Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. (Yeah)[Applause] Tell them not to buy–what is the other bread?–Wonder Bread. [Applause] And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread. [Applause] As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now only the garbage men have been feeling pain. Now we must kind of redistribute that pain. [Applause] We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies, and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right. (That’s right, Speak) [Applause]
Now not only that, we’ve got to strengthen black institutions. (That’s right, Yeah) I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. (Yeah) [Applause] We want a “bank-in” movement in Memphis. (Yes) Go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something that we don’t do ourselves in SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We are telling you to follow what we’re doing, put your money there. [Applause] You have six or seven black insurance companies here in the city of Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an “insurance-in.” [Applause] Now these are some practical things that we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base, and at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. (There you go) And I ask you to follow through here. [Applause]
Now let me say as I move to my conclusion that we’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. (Amen) Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through. [Applause] And when we have our march, you need to be there. If it means leaving work, if it means leaving school, be there. [Applause] Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike (Yeah), but either we go up together or we go down together. [Applause] Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.
One day a man came to Jesus and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters of life. At points he wanted to trick Jesus (That’s right), and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew and throw him off base. [Recording interrupted] Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from midair and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. (Yeah) And he talked about a certain man who fell among thieves. (Sure) You remember that a Levite (Sure) and a priest passed by on the other side; they didn’t stop to help him. Finally, a man of another race came by. (Yes sir) He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But he got down with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying this was the good man, this was the great man because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.
Now, you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop. At times we say they were busy going to a church meeting, an ecclesiastical gathering, and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn’t be late for their meeting. (Yeah) At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that one who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony. (All right) And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather, to organize a Jericho Road Improvement Association. [Laughter] That’s a possibility. Maybe they felt it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effect. [Laughter]
But I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho Road is a dangerous road. (That’s right) I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. (Yeah) And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, “I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable.” It’s a winding, meandering road. (Yes) It’s really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about twelve hundred miles, or rather, twelve hundred feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho fifteen or twenty minutes later, you’re about twenty-two feet below sea level. That’s a dangerous road. (Yes) In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the “Bloody Pass.” And you know, it’s possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. (Go ahead) Or it’s possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking (Yeah), and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. (Oh yeah) And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” (All right)
But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” That’s the question before you tonight. (Yes) Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job?” Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” (Yes) The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” That’s the question. [Applause]
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. (Amen)
And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you. (Yes sir) You know, several years ago I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, “Are you Martin Luther King?” And I was looking down writing and I said, “Yes.”
The next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured you’re drowned in your own blood, that’s the end of you. (Yes sir) It came out in the New York Times the next morning that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died.
Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheelchair of the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the president and the vice president; I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I’d received a visit and a letter from the governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what that letter said. (Yes)
But there was another letter (All right) that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School.” She said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.” (Yes) [Applause]
And I want to say tonight [Applause], I want to say tonight that I, too, am happy that I didn’t sneeze. Because if I had sneezed (All right), I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960 (Well), when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up (Yes sir) for the best in the American dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy, which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
If I had sneezed (Yes), I wouldn’t have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel. (All right)
If I had sneezed (Yes), I wouldn’t have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.
If I had sneezed [Applause], if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963 (All right), when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. (Yes)
If I had sneezed [Applause], I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there.
If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. (Yes) I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.
And they were telling me. [Applause] Now it doesn’t matter now. (Go ahead) It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane–there were six of us–the pilot said over the public address system: “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out (Yeah), or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers.
Well, I don’t know what will happen now; we’ve got some difficult days ahead. (Amen) But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. (Yeah) [Applause] And I don’t mind. [Applause continues] Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. (Yeah) And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. (Go ahead) And I’ve looked over (Yes sir), and I’ve seen the Promised Land. (Go ahead) I may not get there with you. (Go ahead) But I want you to know tonight (Yes), that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. [Applause] (Go ahead, Go ahead) And so I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. [Applause]
Source:MLKEC, INP, Martin Luther King, Jr. Estate Collection, In Private Hands, NYC-4A & 4B
Open thread!
germy
I’m currently reading the PowerNomics book, and the author seems to be in direct opposition to much of what King stood for. There are parts of the book I agree with (like economic empowerment) but a lot of it I don’t follow. Like when the author advocates not voting, to “send a message”.
Major Major Major Major
@germy:
I would have a hard time continuing to take that book seriously, after reading that.
SiubhanDuinne
What a magnificent, astonishing speech. I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever seen or heard any part of it other than the last couple of paragraphs. Kind of surprised it hasn’t come down to us to be known as the “If I Had Sneezed” speech instead of the “Mountaintop” speech.
Wow. Thank you so much for posting that, Adam.
germy
@Major Major Major Major: It was written in 2000. He makes some good points about keeping money in the community and self reliance. My wife bought the book and I started reading it out of curiosity when she finished it.
Lapassionara
@germy: How does not voting send a message? The message I get is that a person who does not vote does not care about the outcome of a political race, does not care who is doing the governing, and does not care which set of policies gets enacted. So, people in office can ignore that person.
Thank you for posting this Adam.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: It sends the message that everyone else can do whatever they want because we’ve ceded the battlefield.
germy
@Lapassionara: One simple trick: Republicans love it!
JPL
What I remember about the life and times of MLK is there were concerns that his events would turn violent. While he was alive, the only violence was caused by the police. Coretta Scott King is responsible for keeping the dream alive. There is still much work to do, and it might take a younger generation to finish the mess mine made.
@germy: What type of message do they want to send? We already have the asshole in the white house, what else do they think will happen.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s what got us to where we are now. SMDH.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s the “Mountaintop” speech because his invocation of Moses was so prophetic.
Yarrow
@germy:
Who’s that sending a message to? I guess it gets Team Pouting all fired up with righteous indignation. Aren’t we more likely to be successful if we work for what we want than sitting on the sidelines because something didn’t go exactly the way we wanted it to?
Thanks for posting the entire speech, Adam.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: That small is beautiful philosophy advocated by Gandhi among others does not work for a nation at a macro-level. India abandoned it soon after independence.
germy
@Yarrow:
I’m sort of hoping the trumpsters adopt this attitude for the next several elections. Stay home, repubs!
TenguPhule
That was then, this is now.
Trump: “Fuck em. Fake news.”
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: if the candidate you’d be supporting but for not voting wins, it sends the message they can ignore you. If they lose, you get an idiot fake cowboy war criminal/idiot fake billionaire (future) war criminal as president, setting you and yours back by years—but boy did you show them!
Roger Moore
@Lapassionara:
I can imagine it sending a message if it’s coming from a group that feels like it’s being ignored. The goal is to send the message “ignore our issues and we see you as unworthy of our vote”. The problem is that not voting is a very crude way of sending a message. It might work if it’s used to back up an explicit threat to abandon a politician you think has abandoned you, but without that explicit threat it’s a very hard message to decode.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Retreat is the best offense or something..
–typical non voter or third party voter.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: If you were able to organize a national strike that actually shut down election day, then you might be able to send a message. But this is the US, we don’t do national strikes. We barely do specific strikes. And even if you could organize one, all you’d do is further empower the minority to tyrannize everyone else. So you’d have what we have now, only much, much worse.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: The teachers are doing some of the best strikes in ages! Go teachers!
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: No arguments at all.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: boy you’re not kidding!
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, not voting makes zero sense.
Jeffro
When voting every couple years is the only feedback mechanism we have, then people sure as hell better get out and vote.
In a political fantasy world, every congressional district is polled substantially on a wide number of issues on a regular basis with the results published and multiple media outlets and furnished to representatives every Monday morning. Real data about what real constituents want, not what a few “libertarian” knuckleheads want.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Unfortunately, the message that usually gets across is, “It’s safe to ignore us, because we won’t vote anyway.” That’s kind of how Democrats ended up in the fix we’re in now.
Lapassionara
@Roger Moore: I could see that kind of message being sent by a large group of voters, like evangelicals. But it would only be effective if the intended recipient of the message lost the election.
JPL
The local CBS news coverage has been amazing, and I’m so pleased that Atlanta is rising to the occasion. They just covered the Moore’s Ford lynching which lit a fire under King that only an assassin’s bullet put out. His dream lived on.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Its giving up your power voluntarily.
germy
Amazon plans to open a 70,000-square-foot facility outside Rochester. Local officials said the facility at 330 Clay Road in Henrietta could be up and running in the next three to four months, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
We really should get this fixed.
TenguPhule
Just a couple more months to Hurricane season and Puerto Rico doesn’t look like it could survive a hard sneeze, let alone another Hurricane of any category.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: how?
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
That’s true. I’m just thinking about a line from another famous MLK speech:
I don’t think that’s been true for quite a while, but I can understand how some blacks might disagree with me. I can certainly see how a black in 2000 might have felt that way.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: If Rochester had a Prime membership it would be up and running by Friday.
Low energy! Sad!
rikyrah
Thanks for this post, Silverman.
It was the way that Dr. King used language which made him so powerful.
Adam L Silverman
Ruh Roh!
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I’m in favor of a more parliamentary style.
Ruckus
@germy:
Yeah, the message one sends by not voting is that they are an idiot.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: You’re quite welcome.
germy
@Adam L Silverman: Would wealthy russians admit that to Mueller? I assume they’d deny it, and then Mueller would produce the hard proof.
(wire transfers, etc)
geg6
I will never forget 1968. I was 10 and just old enough to understand it all, just becoming obsessed with politics and living in a politically active household (dad was an active USW member and mom was very into the Catholic social justice movement of the time). MLK’s assassination happened on my mom’s birthday. She was just devastated. She had gone to the March on Washington with a local priest very active in the civil rights movement and just admired Dr. King so much. RFK, her greatest living hero, was killed two months later. The DNC in Chicago distressed both my anti-war parents, who had young college age children. Then my grandfather (her father) was killed by a drunk driver while crossing the street to our house on my parents’ anniversary. Wasn’t Tet that year, too? Just the worst year. Until now, anyway.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: changing congressional election timing would of course require a constitutional amendment. (FWIW I am also parliament-curious but I’m not fully sold.)
Mathguy
Charlie Pierce mentioned that the Mouth of Sauron (SHS) quoted this speech in her usual smarmy assholish manner. As he points out, if there is an administration that should be aired from ever mentioning King, it’s the shitgibbon’s.
JPL
@Roger Moore: Today states are allowed to close nearby places where one can register to vote. In order to vote in some states you must take off work, and take a bus or drive a ways to register to vote. It’s the new poll tax, and according to the Roberts’ court it is legal.
? Martin
@germy: Sure, why not? It’s been said many times before. It’s not like they need to worry about going to prison or anything.
rikyrah
RFK on King’s assassination
https://youtu.be/GoKzCff8Zbs
Adam L Silverman
@germy:
1) Mueller is not asking any questions he does not already know the answers to.
2) What I think Mueller really wants out of this is the ability to search the personal electronic devices and electronic storage devices- cell and satellite phones, tablets, laptops, external hard drives, SD cards. He wants these so he can, via warrant, get everything he can off of them. But it also gives him and the counterintelligence folks the ability to find any surveillance ware that Russian intel has placed on them. This allows the tech bubbas and bubbettes in the intel community to reverse engineer them.
Mnemosyne
I’ll go in a slightly different direction: I never lived in a world where MLK was alive. He could completed his work before I was even born.
I was raised by people who remembered the pre-Civil Rights days, but it was all history to me thanks to the work that MLK and the other Civil Rights giants did.
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: i believe a “tick tock” is also in order here…
MomSense
I’m so sad today. The public worlds of grieving for what might have been if MLK and JFK had not been killed, combined with the horrors of our present situation, and the daily stress of dealing in my personal life with someone with NPD (only for four more years thank dog) has me at my limit tonight.
Serenity now!
TenguPhule
@Mathguy:
Christ these assholes.
germy
Baud
@germy: Aren’t sources supposed to be reliable?
Julia Grey
It’s the “Mountaintop” speech because his invocation of Moses was so prophetic.
Isn’t it JUST. I got goosebumps reading the last paragraph. I don’t really believe in this stuff, but you can’t help wondering if he’d had some kind of premonition…
Adam L Silverman
This can’t be good!
ruemara
I honestly say I just do not trust that there’s enough American decency to keep minorities safe in this country. Not any more. I want to be proven wrong, because for someone like me, that means I have absolutely stopped being able to exist in this space & time. But I feel more like that’s right and we’d have to go through too much horror for Americans to get off their asses and fucking care. So much blood, death & terror for equal rights and so few who seem to truly understand how valuable it is and how fragile.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: the otters got to them!!
eclare
@Julia Grey: How can you not? I think he knew on some level
? Martin
@Adam L Silverman: My plan is finally working!
eclare
The Vatican is going to toll bells for his death a few minutes after 6:01. In Memphis local newscaster sounds like he’s tearing up as the bell goes here…39 times for 39 years
JPL
The local CBS news is showing the bells ringing in Memphis and I have goose bumps.
eemom
For fuck’s sake, how did a thread in honor of Dr. King get off into a “debate” about the utterly fucked proposition that there is any excuse for not voting, EVER?? Christ, have some respect, people.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
I have two guesses about the cause:
1) Anti-coagulant rat poison. It can cause all kinds of strange behavior in animals as it kills them.
2) Toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasma gondii is known to infect the brain and also cause unusual behavior. It’s best known for making mice unafraid of cats- part of how it perpetuates its life cycle- but it can infect almost any kind of mammal.
? Martin
@ruemara: There’s plenty of decency, it’s just not in the people that have had the power to change things. Have faith in our younger generations. They are working hard to bend that arc and they’re just getting started.
Fair Economist
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s very important people read books like that.
As long as they would otherwise vote Republican.
Major Major Major Major
@eemom:
The one that ends with the words “open” and “thread”, in that order? Who knows!
Fair Economist
@Adam L Silverman: Somebody on an earlier thread said “rabies” which was also my reaction. The raccoon in the pic is even salivating (although I’m thinking it may be a stock pic).
? Martin
@Roger Moore: Oh, sure, don’t give me any credit at all. I spend a lifetime working on zombie procyonids and everyone just ignores me. Originally, I was just seeking revenge against Costa Rica by introducing zombie coatis, but after Nov 2016 I was like ‘fuck it, zombie trash pandas for Ohio it is then!’
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Kind of early for rabies, I think.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
I know. It was eerie and amazing.
By an extraordinary coincidence, my boss and I were in Memphis on a business trip, happened to have a few hours at our disposal, and had already decided to visit the Civil Rights Museum, when we heard that Coretta Scott King had died. The museum had already put up a photographic tribute to her, that greeted visitors at the entrance. By the way, if you ever find yourself in Memphis, for business or pleasure, you should definitely go to the CR Museum, housed in the old Lorraine Motel where Dr King was assassinated. Well worth the visit.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
I understand completely. But, I must keep faith, as generations before me did.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
It is well worth the trip.
BC in Illinois
@rikyrah:
One of the finest speeches ever. Thanks for the chance to see it again. I won’t say where I was in April ’67, but I remember talking with sorrowing people in two different dormitories, and I remember turning around and walking in another direction when I heard people laughing and joking about the assassination. Unspeakable.
RFK and MLK are always tied together in my memory. RFK’s assassination was late night on the west coast, and the news was early morning in the east. It is the only time I can remember, that my father came downstairs to my basement room, to wake me up and tell me the news.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I thought you were trying to keep that secret.
@Fair Economist:
I thought rabies usually caused animals to become aggressive, which doesn’t seem to be the case here.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin: I’m sure he didn’t realize.
Edit: guess I was wrong
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I know it’s fashionable to rip NPR, and I’m not always WABE’s biggest fan — they do something to piss me off nearly every day — but their months’-long series of programs (ATL-68) about MLK and his legacy and wider impact has been some fine broadcasting. Kudos to Rose Scott and the team for both concept and execution.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: @Fair Economist: @debbie: The article says they think it is distemper.
Zelma
@MomSense:
I almost think that the assassination of RFK was more damaging than that of JFK, which is saying a lot. He was possibly the last American politician who could have forged an alliance between blacks and working class, ethnic whites. What ifs are basically futile but the loss of first MLK and then RFK that spring was devastating. One always wonders if this country could have gone down a different path. Certainly the path we have trod that has led us to Trump is tragic.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
The exhibit that stands out in my mind, all these years later, is the one about how very fucking challenging it was for black people to vote, or even register to vote. The so-called “literacy” tests are simultaneously laughable and offensive in the extreme. This happened well within my lifetime. It was horrible, and we must fight with all we have to make sure it never happens again.
ruemara
@? Martin: You kinda need to listen to more POC podcasters on the stupidity of our American Youth & race. Not indicative of the total, but enough to be concerning. That’s one thing I am grateful to Parkland students for. They’ve been intersectional, willing to listen to real critiques on race & disability and they have surrendered the microphone and lifted up their students of color who’ve been ignored by the media.
eemom
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, I know it’s an open thread. Believe it or not, I consider it more blasphemous to indulge in privileged white musings about the pros and cons of not voting on the anniversary of the man who died for the Voting Rights Act, than to suggest that people show some respect on an Open Thread.
Major Major Major Major
.
Major Major Major Major
@eemom: you’re welcome to say something nice about Dr. King instead of talking about me and you and the thread and your opinion.
patroclus
I was alive then but not very old. I really liked both MLK and RFK and I can distinctly remember TV coverage of both speeches. I also remember believing that epic prophetic Moses-like speeches and politicians quoting Aeschylus was normal and to be expected – only to be steadily disappointed in the years since. Losing King and, in my view, the best Kennedy was very sad then and still.
Miss Bianca
Wow, i think that may be the first time I’ve ever read the whole speech. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the timeliness/timelessness of it all. Thanks for posting, Adam!
Kathleen
Thanks so much, Adam, and to Juicers for comments and links here. RKF’s speech had me in tears. 1968 was the worst year in my memory. I was a college student. I saw RFK speak in my college cafeteria a few weeks later (he was in Portland campaigning in Oregon primary) and some students begged him to make a stop on campus. He finally relented. When I woke up the morning after California primary and heard he was killed I was convinced that between MLK’s murder and RFK the world was going to end.
Ohio Mom
Rolling my eyes at the not voting thing. In a life full of errands and chores, it is a very easy thing to do.
We’re going to a bar mitzvah at the end of the month and I decided to finally get my kid a sports jacket — that’s good enough, I don’t think he needs an actual suit.
We found a nice navy job that needed a few alterations, so now we’ll have to take a second trip to the store to try it on again and bring it home.
Don’t even get me started on the search for a dress shirt.
Compared to all that, I’d rather go to the polls. It’s closer to home than the stores are, I only have to go once or twice a year and I’m done because there is no follow-up to take care of, it doesn’t take very long, it costs no money, and when I’m finished I get a cute “I voted” sticker.
Amir Khalid
The post topic reminded me of this U2 song.
Greenergood
Thank you for the transcript of MLK’s speech. BBC Radio 4 played the last seven minutes at the end of the 5 PM news Tuesday night, beginning with the story of the woman who stabbed him and the girl writing him to say she was glad he didn’t sneeze. I’d never heard that (or any of it except for the mountaintop bit) One thing that hit me was that the text from that anecdote to the end is actually quite short, but he was a great orator, and his audience were communicating with him, so that bit took seven minutes. I was in my kitchen on Tuesday chopping carrots for dinner and had to stop because I was crying. I was 11 when MLK was killed – I grew up in a Bronx Irish Catholic family who’d moved 30 miles north to the ‘burbs. The only black people I saw in my all-white neighbourhood were cleaning ladies, and astonishingly, 50 years later, in my old neighbourhood, where my mom still lives, the only black people you see are still cleaning ladies, or nannies, or aides for elderly folk – oh, and the mailman. 30 miles north of New York City…