dagblog - Comments for "Birth of A Myth, Death of A Dream"

Good description. I

moat — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:24:28 +0000

In reply to He was also, at the time of

Good description. I particularly like the reminder that he followed as well as he lead.

Hello Moat...

oldenGoldenDecoy — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 22:51:24 +0000

In reply to I think what OGD is pointing

Hello Moat...

Oh yes yes yes... A long long ways to go...

"Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such."

As my other go-to guy was to say... War is a Racket.

~OGD~

I'm certainly not the one to

ocean-kat — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 19:48:12 +0000

In reply to Hillary from Okat link:

I'm certainly not the one to come up with an action plan for BLM. I'm just an outsider looking in without a detailed and comprehensive understanding of laws, regulations and police procedures. I don't know what needs to change and what changes would be easiest or most effective.

Ramsey's suggestion of regionalization of police forces might help but it seems to me it would be the hardest to implement as you pointed out. I've read some good things about citizen boards providing community oversight of police activity. Mandatory de-escalation training might help. Police and prosecutors love "3 strikes and you're out" laws. Perhaps something like that could be instituted to fire overly aggressive cops who have repeated complaints before it results in death.

I really don't know but surely there are experts who have deeply studied the subject. BLM needs to find some people who can help them come up with a list of changes they're protesting for. As Hillary said, they need to come up with a plan that details what and how laws need to be changed, what changes do they want in the allocation of resources, and exactly how they want the systems to change.

I think what OGD is pointing

moat — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:32:08 +0000

In reply to Thanks OGD. You may well be

I think what OGD was getting at was that King was not only fighting against oppression and poverty in the name of those who suffer the consequences of it but that he was also challenging the military and economic institutions that grew into giants during the Cold War. The radical acceptance of a global community requires the defeat of the agenda of the America First crowd.

In the same speech:

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

By this measure, we have a hell of a long way to go.

Honore is a fake news loser

NCD — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:23:17 +0000

In reply to Reducing # departments and

Honore is a fake news loser who didn't see the size of the crowd that turned out for Trump at the Texas refugee center.

Trumps storm is epic and massive and he has asked all to withhold congratulations for his leadership on it until later.

On a serious note, Chief Ramsey's objective to cut # departments in half would be fought by every two bit billy bob who runs his police department like an Afghan warlord, and by Republicans who the billy bobs vote for and $upport.

Don't fight the hand that

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:07:52 +0000

In reply to Eh, reading could be my

Don't fight the hand that bleeds you

Eh, reading could be my

Michael Maiello — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 18:00:30 +0000

In reply to The strawman was Danny's bit

Eh, reading could be my friend.

Reducing # departments and

artappraiser — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 17:51:02 +0000

In reply to Hillary from Okat link:

Reducing # departments and other points would be fought by local cops who don't want oversight but it is a tangible goal and clear objective.

Strikes me right away from your comment: should have been a no brainer after 9/11/01 but of course, didn't happen anywhere near enough. As regards what's going on right now in Texas, I saw Ret. General Honore on TV the other day ripping it as a disorganized mess. No, we don't want to federalize policing, but in this international day and age (and there are great benefits to being real close with the community) there needs to be a lot more coordination over bigger regions. And, yeah, "policing the police" would be easier then.

I really like your analysis

artappraiser — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 17:48:36 +0000

In reply to Anytime activists push for

I really like your analysis as regards protest here, oceankat. And NCD's addon from Hillary tops it off well.

He was also, at the time of

AmericanDreamer — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 17:35:13 +0000

In reply to Thanks OGD. You may well be

He was also, at the time of his death, leading a deeply troubled Poor People's Campaign to try to pressure the federal government to do more in the War On Poverty.

He publicly and forthrightly supported so many controversial change efforts, and was so deeply threatening to so many people, that his stances and activities on any number of issues may have played a role in his murder.

Through his dress and demeanor--an artful blend of conveying respect to people and institutions he pulled no punches in articulately and passionately criticizing--he made it far more difficult for people whose help he knew he needed to dismiss him. One of my reactions to some who relish the dirty hippy MO, sometimes accompanied by flaunting in-your-face nastiness to adversaries, is: Is it worth it to you? And then I remind myself that their social vision, not just their tactics and strategy, is different from King's. I know which society I want to live in.

By love, King seemed to have meant, practically on a societal and global level, intercultural social integration, along with nonviolent conflict resolution. He is long gone. His ideas and ideals will never die. They have been long dormant, in a public visibility sense, in our country. There are individuals and groups who carry a torch King among many others of his era and before carried. (King himself was recruited into and initially led by the Montgomery bus boycott organizers, many of whose key members were women barely known or unknown to the history books and invisible in the after-the fact mythology that was created.) I might add bravely and in the face of indifference or hostility from many.