Friday, January 19, 2007

wwmlkd?

i have a responsibility

monday was the martin luther king federal holiday.

it passed, as it usually does any more, without much fuss. perfunctory retrospectives, speculation on what he'd think of thus-and-such, angst over our collective malaise.

the conventional wisdom is that king was a great man, a passionate voice at a critical time, an inspiration to millions. despite that, it's understood that today he'd be excoriated, marginalized by the industrial christian right.

lenin said religion is the opiate of the masses. maybe, back in the day. now, though, television serves that role. we have become sedate, lethargic, indifferent. we stand by idly as a low-IQ underachiever dumbs us all down.

what would king do about it? he'd organize, and rally and march. he'd sit with cindy sheehan in the halls of congress, and demonstrate in front of the white house. he'd work tirelessly in new orleans and demand attention be paid to the city's ongoing tragedy.

but he's gone, and his day has become just another monday. an empty gesture. business as usual.

i doubt dr. king would care about the holiday. but i bet he'd care deeply that the principles of his life's work have been so casually discarded.

6 comments:

Bon said...

I'm you didn't sneeze space and were able to write this eloquent and well stated post.

Bon said...

Let me re-phrase that!

I'm glad you didn't sneeze and were able to write such an apt post.

eegads! Too many distractions here at the factory ... don't they know I'm busy blogging.

spaceneedl said...

i kinda knew what you meant, but i was gonna e-mail to ask anyway.

thank you...and tell those factory people to get their priorities in order!

Bon said...

so ... you know about the sneeze?

spaceneedl said...

not a clue. please clarify.

Bon said...

He can explain in much better than I:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

This speech, known as The Mountain Top speech, was delivered the night before his death. In my mind it's one of the most powerful speeches of our time, but it's usually overshadowed by that little ditty, "I Have a Dream."

Sorry but my reference to the sneeze will be clarified near the end. Hang in there, his words are worth the time.