While the initials “MLK” mean something quite different to me than they do to the rest of the country (I’m married to her), this date remains an important one for this country.<\/p>\n
Not just for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man — an influential man — but the tying of this date to him has had the mixed blessing of providing a personalized example: an heroic icon whose life can be examined and whose achievements cataloged and celebrated, but also a man whose flaws (and the sins and goofiness committed in his name) can be used to discredit all that the day is meant to represent, which is the triumph of the human spirit over oppression, the achievement of peaceful change against injustice, and the (ever-unfolding) recognition that all are created equal, not just those born with the “right” gender and skin color (etc.).<\/p>\n
It makes me wonder — do we live in a post-heroic age? Did the idolization of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, such that their birthdays were made national holidays, run into similar problems? Or are we too prone to look for clay feet these days, too quick to dismiss the good of a man if we can pick out a flaw?<\/p>\n
I can point to any number of individuals involved in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and find dirt on any of them, or note how some ideas they had were as screwy as others of their ideas were profound. Heck, I can point to how excesses of the movement, and venality amongst some of its leadership (to this day) have had negative impacts on the nation and on the groups the movement sought to protect.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, our nation, as a whole, is profoundly better off for the pain and sacrifice and dedication to purpose of those civil rights leaders and the thousands and millions who followed them. And if we let the flaws of that era and its principals obscure the good that came of it — the escape from Jim Crow and separate drinking fountains and racial (among other forms) discrimination being not only present but legally condoned and enforced — then we’ve become part of the problem as much as we are inheritors of the solution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the initials “MLK” mean something quite different to me than they do to the rest of the country (I’m married to her), this date remains an important one for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17556,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/07\/unblogged-bits-mon-7-jun-10-1400.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":0},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Mon. 7-Jun-10 1400)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-Jun-10 12:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Book Burning - Heh. Learning About the Left From Glenn Beck | The American Prospect - \"These are important figures whose role in the progressive world should be better understood, even if learning about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5595,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/13\/hugs_kisses.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":1},"title":"Hugs & Kisses","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Feb-04 11:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"My love is sweeter than candy ... (via BoingBoing)...","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"MLK AOK","src":"\/blog\/images\/heart_20040213095129_86258.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25459,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/16\/united-colors.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":2},"title":"United Colors","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 16-Jan-12 6:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In memory of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. #ddtbReshared post from +helen sotiriadis\u200e\"Not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.\" - MLKvia george takei.","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16548,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/18\/unblogged-bits-for-monday-18-january-2010.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":3},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Monday, 18 January 2010","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Jan-10 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Update: The original posting of this was messed up. Sorry about that. Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Secret \"Jesus\" Bible codes inscribed on American military weapons - Boing Boing: - Who would Jesus snipe? Bad Constitutionality, even worse theology.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12810,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/23\/potpourri_for_a_savory_tu.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":4},"title":"Potpourri for a Savory Tuesday","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Sep-08 3:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie's making some sort of soup or sauce on the stove and it smells wonderful, hence the title ... BAD THINGS Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power to...\u00a0- So...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135796,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/10\/fifty-years-ago-year.html","url_meta":{"origin":8231,"position":5},"title":"Fifty Years Ago This Year","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Jan-18 3:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's gobsmacking to me that it's fifty years since 1968. Here are some significant news photos from that very turbulent year, which saw protests in the US and abroad (many of them violently suppressed), continued battle in Vietnam, two nation-shaking assassinations, and a US presidential campaign. 50 Years Ago in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/1968-black-protest-i-am-a-man.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}