I've enjoyed being able to blog here at TPM Cafe.  I hope reader blogs come back here soon.  But in case they don't I want to share a few thoughts with you and I want to say thank you to all those I've run into here for their efforts (even those with whom I strongly disagree). 

I have found the posts and comments here on the whole quite thoughtful, interesting, well written, often very witty, humorous and downright funny.  I have found sustenance in the passion of many of those who have shared of themselves here.  I have felt sorrow for some of those in this community who have been sick, taken ill and in a couple of heartbreaking situations even passed away.  I've learned some new things and come to appreciate some things I hadn't before.  It's been quite a memorable experience.  Thanks to Josh for making the experience possible.  Thanks to the endless good humor and patience of Versha and the others who kept it all operating one way or another.

Following are just some items I want to share as my parting blog here.  I'm sure I'll run into a number of you either at dagblog or one of the other possible TPM refugee sites identified in recent days.

Until then...Pax Vobiscum to you all!

Martin Luther King, III (above)

I thought the message in the excerpted AP article below worth remembering and repeating often:

The eldest surviving child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King prefers to observe the national holiday in honor of his father as opposed to celebrating it. Martin Luther King III said there is simply too much work to be done around what his father called the "triple evils."

"We can't celebrate when the triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism are still very much existing in our society," said King. "The holiday always gives us an opportunity to begin anew."

Ever since I first learned about the great Frederick Douglass (above) he has been one of my heroes.  I think he was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.  His words are worth remembering when we hear politicians and pundits talking about compromising with evil.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.

Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will. Show me the exact amount of wrong and injustices that are visited upon a person and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

 Sojourner Truth (above) was an extraordinary woman and on her tombstone is the following question she asked of Frederick Douglass during the Civil War...

Is God Dead?

Mary "Mother" Jones was born in the 1830's and fought hard all her life for working people.  Her famous battle cry should never be fortgotten.

Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!

The incredible Helen Keller (above) is known far and wide today as the person who overcame multiple disabilities in a time when that was unheard of.  Yet she was also an ardent activist whose politics has been buried in favor of emphasizing her "safer" triumph over her hearing, sight, and verbal disabilities.  Her words in the quote below resonate strongly today as we manage to survive a rerun of the robber baron era and the boom and bust cycle of laissez faire capitalism once again as she did a hundred years ago.

We the people are not free.  Our democracy is but a name.  We vote?  What does that mean?  It means that we choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.  We elect expensive masters to do our work for us, and then blame them because they work for themselves and for their class.

The legendary Joe Hill (above) was shot by a firing squad for organizing workers.  He wrote a song called The Preacher and the Slave sung to the tune of the old Christian Hymn "In The Sweet Bye and Bye".  It's worth reading Joe Hill's lyrics even today:

Robert F. Kennedy shown above talking to a child was an extrardinary inspiration to so many people and remains so today and had a great deal to say that should be remembered.  When I was in grade school he was murdered but I still remember these words of his:

A well-informed, well-educated young America is our country's best hope for the future.

Earlier this year we lost the people's historian, the incomparable Prof. Howard Zinn (above).  His influence continues growing with each passing year.  I doubt that death will slow down the momentum of his message of optimism, hope, defiance, love of humanity, and respect for the dignity and worth of all human beings.  His stature only continues to grow in my eyes and in those of many, many others.  He was a towering source of strength and hope for millions of common people and for me personally.  He is certainly the greatest figure I have ever known well.  For decades now I have had nothing but a growing admiration for his work, his wisdom, his gentle but resolute manner and for his perserverance.  As he grew older he only became more eloquent and moving when he spoke to crowds of people.  His words were and remain particularly important on the topic of war.  As a World War II bombardier he spoke not from an academic point of view but as a participant in war.  His experience of war and the mass violence it visits upon human beings taught him to oppose all war.  His words on this topic are well worth reading over and over again and should never be forgotten.

This is an excerpt of a talk given November 11, 2009 at Boston University where Howard Zinn taught countless students for many years whose lives, like mine, were changed for the better by the experience.

All one has to do is look at the following photographs to know how right Howard Zinn's words above really are.

The children above were killed in Afghanistan

The child above is from Iraq.

War is the enemy of all humanity and all that is decent and good in the world. 

Failure to oppose war is tantamount, in my opinion, to collaborating with evil.  We should do all we can to end the horrific and unwinnable, endless wars our country is currently prosecuting.

I'll end with a reminder about how this post began.  Martin Luther King's struggle was the right one.  He fought against militarism, poverty and racism and so should we.