Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“woke” is the new caravan.

After roe, women are no longer free.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Let’s finish the job.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The revolution will be supervised.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

No one could have predicted…

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / MLK Jr. Day — Open Thread

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Ben Franklin

    In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

    ‘Nuff said.

  2. 2.

    JGabriel

    Hey, remember that time Eric Cantor told us on Labor Day that we should all celebrate business owners?

    Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.

    Well, today, Bill Keller one-ups Cantor by recommending that we all use Martin Luther King Day to celebrate a white conservative Republican:

    Somewhere in all this worthy commemoration we should pause to pay homage to a conservative white Republican named William Moore McCulloch.

    Now, I personally have no qualms about celebrating McCulloch’s contributions toward passage of a Civil Rights bill on any other day, but to horn in with that idea on the single day of the year America sets aside to celebrate the contributions to America of a black man, Dr. Martin Luther King (whom I note Keller did not mention once in the column)?

    Wow.

  4. 4.

    gbear

    @JGabriel: Are comments open on that Keller ‘piece’? The only reason I want to give it a click is to read the ‘reader’s picks’ comments.

  5. 5.

    Belafon

    @JGabriel: When Presidents Day comes around, we need to make sure we recognize the contribution of all of Jefferson’s and Washington’s slaves.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

  7. 7.

    JGabriel

    Betty Cracker @ Top:

    This is one of my favorite MLK quotes. You?

    I like:

    … the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

    From the Credit Where Credit Is Due department: BTW, the quote is a reference to an observation by 19th C. abolitionist Theodore Parker on the eventual success of the abolition movement:

    I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

    .

  9. 9.

    rda909

    Just put this on the last thread, but seems more appropriate here, since President Barack Hussein Obama is one of the purest living examples of MLK’s “Dream”:

    “So on MLK Day, there’s over 130 comments and counting about how “transformative” President Barack Hussein Obama has been so far, and I don’t see one person pointing out how transformative it has been, and will continue to be for generations, to have someone with his skin tone win the White House. Then of course, how he and his family have carried themselves while in office (unlike his Democratic predecessor in the White House) has also helped transform stereotypes that have built up for hundreds of years.

    It’s not surprising though, since this omission is the basis for the “Obummer” sentiment that the media owners stoke every single day, and sadly so many privileged progressives amplify.”

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Steeplejack:

    As I noted earlier, this would be a good day to slap Rinse Prebus around like a rag doll over the notion that MLK would have anything to do today with the party of vile racist shit that Prebus nominally leads as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

    As for Keller, he seems to be doubling down after the entire cancer patient shaming thing. There is no hell hot enough for the likes of Keller.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rda909:

    Then of course, how he and his family have carried themselves while in office (unlike his Democratic predecessor in the White House) has also helped transform stereotypes that have built up for hundreds of years.

    The stereotypes are still there, I fear. They are held on to with the same fervor as those things noted by Obama years ago. “God” and guns.

    We’ll not know how transformative Obama was for some time. He’s still in office, after all. You have to wait for the dust to settle a bit on these things.

  17. 17.

    JGabriel

    @gbear:

    Are comments open on that Keller ‘piece’? The only reason I want to give it a click is to read the ‘reader’s picks’ comments.

    Yes.

    So far no one has pointed out the bald “Hey, let’s credit white men for Civil Rights on MLK day!” theme. Or, if they have, the Times hasn’t approved it for publication yet.

    .

  19. 19.

    MikeJ

    @Baud:

    Doesn’t Virginia celebrate Robert E. Lee day today?

    To coöpt the old racist joke, let’s kill four more bigots and get the rest of the week off.

  20. 20.

    Aji

    @Villago Delenda Est: Actually, there is one way in which we already KNOW that he’s been transformative: For POC, it’s shown us that folks like us now can reach that particular peak on the mountaintop. For children of color (and their parents), this is something that cannot be underestimated, even if there’s no outward “evidence” to other folks of its impact. Do not for a moment think that this means that we don’t understand just how ephemeral a victory it is in too many ways, or how much work remains to be done on every single front, including those that other people never have to consider.

    But in this one way, there is absolutely no question that he has been transformative. And that matters.

    And on a day like today, it should also be recognized and celebrated.

  21. 21.

    gogol's wife

    @rda909:

    Amen. I am so depressed by the way Obama has been treated. And I’m depressed in advance about the days when he will no longer be president. We will not see his like again, not in my lifetime anyway.

  22. 22.

    EconWatcher

    When Obama was first elected, I had this fantasy idea of what it would be like to go back in time, to 1968, and tell Dr. King that in 40 years, a young American elementary school kid who was studying in Indonesia would become the first black president. I imagine his pleasure and pride in hearing it would have been tinged with a little disappointment: That long?

  24. 24.

    MikeJ

    @Aji: Until very recently the old saw about how anybody can grow up to be president was a big fat lie. It’s amazing how many people won’t accept that simple fact. Before Obama it didn’t matter how hard you worked or what your actually policy views were, no black kid could really dream of being president.

  27. 27.

    bjacques

    Keller has a dream but it is small. He should have written a column praising Strom Thurmond for inspiring so many people to make him and his kind a bad memory.

  29. 29.

    rda909

    @Villago Delenda Est: Obviously stereotypes will probably never go away completely, but I certainly do not have to “wait” and see how transformative President Barack Hussein Obama is in terms of racial stereotypes. From the moment he took the Oath of Office 5 years ago today, he smashed a large percentage of stereotypes, and smashes more and more each day he’s in office.

    That’s why the media incessantly pushes the “Obummer sux!!1!” themes in every single story (consider how they bring him into the Chris Christie scandals), which unfortunately, so many privileged progressives (let’s face it, are almost exclusively white people) repeat constantly. They are trying to diminish his support as much as possible to minimize his transformative power.

  30. 30.

    Aji

    @MikeJ: No black kid, no red kid, no brown kid, no yellow kid. His election (twice!) has given a nearly-indescribable form of hope to every non-white population in this country. I know it’s given hope to women and girls. I suspect it also does the same for people of minority creeds and faiths and those who are members of the LGBTQI spectrum of communities.

    If you belong to the dominant culture, that’s something you never actually have to see, feel, or experience. For the rest of us, it’s huge.

  32. 32.

    Zifnab25

    @Baud: Meh. From my experience, people just like making lists and ranking things. Hence all the Buzzfeed-style “TOP 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NASAL PASSAGES!” and “THE 3 MOST POPULAR ONLINE CRYPTOCURRENCY SEX ADDICTS” headlines we get inundated with on a regular basis.

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Aji:

    Oh, I agree with you to a great degree. There is also evidence that young people in general have been affected by his very election as seeing skin color as not nearly as important than it has been seen in the past…which is a good thing. Judging by the content of character is a huge step forward, and it’s one of the reason I hold Rethuglicans in such abysmal contempt. They display their character all the time, and they come up looking like the bottom of the pond.

    Still, to really judge Obama’s place in history (aside from the patently obvious) as a President is a bit premature, and it will have to take into account a great many things, to include the Village’s innate hostility to anyone with a (D) behind their name.

  35. 35.

    EconWatcher

    @gogol’s wife:

    Here’s the thing about Obama: Being a community organizer in the Alinsky tradition seems like about the most unlikely path to the US presidency I can imagine–especially for a black guy. And he had no money or family connections. Nothing. But through sheer force of talent, he invented a path for himself and became president.

    When he leaves the presidency, he will be (with any luck) still very healthy, young, and vigorous. He’ll be world famous, rich, and with an unimaginable wealth of international connections–and still armed with one of the most persuasive voices on the planet.

    What can a guy, with his drive and imagination, do with all that to shape the world after he leaves office? I don’t know, because I don’t have his kind of vision. But I’m looking forward to finding out.

  36. 36.

    MikeJ

    All the more reason to cheer for the Seahawks. King County. Yes, that’s the actual seal. A few years ago we changed the name from “King County” (after William Rufus King, VP when Washington became a state) to “King County” after MLK.

  39. 39.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Yes, the MSM has been working overtime on that. No where has the charge been stronger than in the Village, where they carefully avoid drawing the obvious conclusion about what drives much of the criticism of Obama in their usual airheaded High Brodereque way.

  41. 41.

    J

    @JGabriel: A comment prior to reading the Keller piece: if the point were to shame the present day Republican party by pointing to the fact that it once contained decent and principled people, there might be something to Keller’s idea. If the point is, as I fear it is, to pretend that this is still true, not so good.

  45. 45.

    rda909

    @EconWatcher: I wish he’d start a venture capital firm and eventually buy out Mittbot’s Bain, and some of the other odious ones, then turn them in green energy and in-shoring ventures.

    He’s so much smarter than those greedy thugs, that I’m sure he’d be able to beat them at that game too if he wanted. I don’t expect this at all, but one can dream, right?

  46. 46.

    Ahh says fywp

    Fake quotes hace prolifetated on tge intertube cesspool. Fake mlk quote got posted on the union board at work last wk. Grrrr

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @J:

    Exactly my thought on that entire piece. The Rethuglicans have been working, very hard, over the past 40 years to drive decent people from their ranks and for the most part they’ve been successful. I definitely think Keller’s intention is to muddy the waters.

  50. 50.

    scav

    Mmmm, so does Keller think Christmas is the perfect day to reflect upon the great contributions to our society and its seasonal practices of one Mr. Montgomery Ward?

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What has been eye-opening for me is the cover MSM has given to all the racists and bigots in the Obama era. From the birthers to the tea-partiers.

    Yup. So it’s nice to have a federal holiday that celebrates a real hero.

    This MLK holiday is more meaningful to me than many before, because it’s become so obvious how much farther we as a society have to go, and one marvels even more at how much Dr. King was able to accomplish (with others!) in less than 40 years allotted life.

    One realizes how much courage is required for the patience and perseverance and action and sheer faith required.

    Society is changing, though, which is why the rear-guarders and their MSM protectors are even more frenetic.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud:

    I don’t mind those lists too much if they create a cage match between James Buchanan, Warren Harding, and the deserting coward for last place.

    It’s even better if they throw Reagan is as a last place wannabe. I did not think it possible for anyone to outbad Nixon until Reagan came along, and then I didn’t think anyone could outbad Reagan until the deserting coward got appointed to the job by five traitors who, in a just universe, would roast forever in Hell.

  58. 58.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @rda909: Oh I think he has absolutely been transformative by becoming President, for exactly the reasons you say.

    I also think it’s entirely reasonable to ask the question about how transformative his actions as President have been, rather than it being somehow blasphemous to even ask the question.

    It’s the “No, he is good and wise …period!” that bugs the crap out of me, the sense that one must not even question whether everything he’s done is perfect.

    And to those who brought up Bill Keller: when I saw that he was noting MLK day by celebrating a white conservative Republican I thought it was actually the epitome of a Bill Keller column, the very model of his entire approach, which ranges from bordering on offensive to offensive.

  59. 59.

    Villago Delenda Est

    We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools.

    “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” — Benjamin Franklin

    Pretty much the same sentiment, from two wise men.

  60. 60.

    Fuzzy

    I have always resented MLK Day (not the man) as it forced Presidents Day. No one was more important than Washington and Lincoln for establishing who we are and yet they were kinda forced out of the picture.

  61. 61.

    EconWatcher

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Purely as president, I don’t think Obama has a chance of making it into the pantheon of historical greats, like Lincoln or Roosevelt. But that’s for a very happy reason: Knock on wood, he won’t have had to address anything as monumental and tragic as the Civil War or WW II.

    But as I suggested earlier, I still have hopes that he will finish his life as a major, transformative figure in American history, because I don’t think we’ll be done with him (nor he with us) when he leaves office. I think he can reinvent the notion of post-presidential power and influence. And I hope he does.

  62. 62.

    JGabriel

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Christ, what an asshole.

    Those are the exact words I wanted to post in the Times comment section, but I figured it would never get past the Times’ moderators.

  64. 64.

    gogol's wife

    @EconWatcher:

    That cheered me up!

    I haven’t felt as if I could fully enjoy his presidency, because I’m surrounded by the cloud of squid ink that the NYTimes, Morning Joe (which I don’t watch, but hear about), not to mention Fox have blown up around him. I get personally offended by the way they talk about him, and it makes it so that I can’t even watch him or Michelle because I worry about them so much. It’s kind of ridiculous, but there it is.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    I don’t have a favorite quote.
    I like the man’s entire life, what he stood for, what he worked for, the impression he made on so many people, and the people he inspires.

  66. 66.

    rda909

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Any objective analysis of his list of accomplishments has to conclude that he’s been one of the most transformative Presidents ever, and most liberal for that matter. The broad range of issues where he has improved things is breathtaking, and often he has made progress on many issues that have never seen progress before. Whenever I make comments like that here, or talk like that with “progressives” I know, they always bristle, but it’s simply a fact.

    On issue after issue, he has tried for bigger and better and more liberal reform, but often has watered things down based on DEMOCRATS demanding he do that, and making some change is better than none. He started his tax push wanting to tax $250K on up. He wanted troops out of Afghan/Iraq on a faster timetable originally. He wanted the Stimulus in 2009 to be much bigger, and on and on. People in his own party, such as Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and the ones still in there have scuttled so much.

    It’s bugged me how despite all this incredible change already brought on, and in the face of the most obstructionist Congress ever (by far), supposed “progressives” still just focus on what hasn’t been done yet. He’ll never be able to satisfy these privileged people, and I have my own reasons why that might be.

  68. 68.

    Cassidy

    What has been eye-opening for me is the cover MSM has given to all the racists and bigots in the Obama era. From the birthers to the tea-partiers to suburban progressives.

  71. 71.

    Chris

    There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, “Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,” but will curse and damn you when you say, “Be nonviolent toward little brown Vietnamese children.” There is something wrong with that press.

    That pretty much sums up what I thought a month or two ago when I saw high-minded conservative after conservative gush about what a very, very great man Nelson Mandela was for taking the high road and opposing violent retribution. They praise other people to the highest heavens for being nonviolent and peaceful towards people they can identify with, but it would never in a million years occur to them to do the same thing. Terrorism? Hit harder. Crime? Hit harder. Peaceful protests? Hit harder. Oddly enough, it’s only when rich white people commit the violence that nonviolence proves that you’re magnanimous and high-minded rather than an appeasement-surrender peacenik.

    Then I found out that MLK had said almost exactly the same thing…

  72. 72.

    Belafon

    @Fuzzy: Except George Washington day was first enacted by Congress in 1879 and changed to Presidents day in 1971, while MLK day wasn’t created until 1983.

  73. 73.

    MomSense

    There are so many great quotes but the whole “Mountaintop” speech to the striking sanitation workers is a masterpiece.

  74. 74.

    EconWatcher

    @Yatsuno:

    An interesting idea. But his speechifying skill would be wasted as a judge.

    I think his greatest value-added is in his ability to persuade and inspire masses of people, almost regardless of educational level, culture, or even nationality. He can go to the south side of Chicago and bring the house down. He can go to rural Iowa and bring the house down. Heck, he can go to Germany and attract the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds since, well, you know who.

    What could that talent do for the force of good? What if he could marshal the philanthropic resources of a Soros or Gates, but combine it with his persuasive and rhetorical skill? I hope he’s thinking along these lines.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:

    Oddly enough, it’s only when rich white people pay their lackeys to commit the violence that nonviolence proves that you’re magnanimous and high-minded rather than an appeasement-surrender peacenik.

    FTFY. Rich white people don’t put their own asses on the line in the name of their violent beliefs; they hire somebody else to do it for them.

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Well, our friends at Noisemax go there:

    Obama: People ‘Really Dislike Me’ Because I’m Black

    Well, duh. He is, after all, the near sheriff.

    The unbelievable thing about Blazing Saddles is that as is typical with all Hollywood product, it has a happy ending where the people of Rock Ridge actually learn from the experience and view the Near differently than they did originally, and it’s a positive change.

    If only real life could be like that, but no, the Noisemax crowd doubles down. Always.

  78. 78.

    Ruckus

    @gogol’s wife:
    The people I like are the asshole firebaggers, who see the President as not nearly enough. Without their sparkle pony nothing is good enough. They can never see the person in front of them, only that which they themselves can never aspire to, that which is so impossible that they can always be mad about someone else not having it. Assholes.

  79. 79.

    slippytoad

    @JGabriel:

    Well, today, Bill Keller was an insufferable cunt, as usual.

    Oh, I didn’t read the rest of your choose-a-story. Just made up my own.

  80. 80.

    Chris

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Few things depress me more than seeing polls that rank Reagan # 1 among American presidents. He may not be *the* worst president we ever had, but he certainly ranks in the bottom 5. (Bush was worse, but on the other hand, Reagan enabled Bush – and everything that came after his presidency. The entire modern GOP is his baby. There is no hole in hell hot enough for that).

  82. 82.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ruckus:

    If only we had done the right thing and all voted for Ralph Nader, things would be different now.

    In other breaking news, I’ve got millions sitting in some Nigerian bank in your name if only you’ll forward your bank account information to me.

  83. 83.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @EconWatcher:

    Heck, he can go to Germany and attract the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds since, well, you know who.

    The Dark Lord drew huge crowds in Germany?

  85. 85.

    Chris

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    That’s always what occurs to me while watching “Blazing Saddles,” much as I love the movie and think it’s a spot-on satire of far too many things. They’d have taken one look at the near sheriff and elected Hedy Lamarr mayor.

  87. 87.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Yatsuno:

    plus Fat Tony would stroke out instantly.

    The only downside I can see to this is that we’d have a rewind of the Reagasm.

  88. 88.

    MikeJ

    @Baud:

    He could become a blogger.

    “You know, there’s nothing better than sitting here with Bo and Sunny sitting on my lap while I watch GoT. Here’s a dimly lit picture of them. Where’s my mustard?”

  89. 89.

    bjacques

    We must all learn to live together as brothers or die like ketchup-soaked nonactors in a bad biker movie. – The Golden Turkey Awards.

  91. 91.

    rda909

    @EconWatcher: “Heck, he can go to Germany and attract the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds since, well, you know who.”

    David Hasselhoff? Not sure even the Hoffster had over 200K, which then-candidate drew in Berlin. The articles I see about JFK’s speech say it was even more than that, but comparing birds-eye pictures of the 2 speeches, JFK’s doesn’t seem bigger and maybe even smaller attendance than Obama’s speech. Doesn’t really matter much since both were historic.

  93. 93.

    Shana

    @Elizabelle: Skit resorts and school kids. My older daughter’s law school classmates who aren’t from Virginia were stunned to learn about Friday. Can’t say I blame them.

  94. 94.

    am

    and

    Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

    Also, Letter from a Birmingham Jail

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    MLK had many great lines from many great speeches and writings. But one I’ve always liked is:

    It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.

    (Some Republican he was.)

  96. 96.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    He might well have been a Republican back before the Great Purge took place to get the decent out of the Party and insure asshole purity.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @Ruckus:

    The people I like are the asshole firebaggers, who see the President as not nearly enough. Without their sparkle pony nothing Nothing in reality is good enough.

    FTFY. If they had a consistent sparkle pony, I might have some respect for them, but their demands are an ever-moving target. Even when Obama has given them what they asked for, they have just shifted the goalposts and claimed he isn’t good enough because he hasn’t already hit the next target.

  101. 101.

    Heliopause

    “I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.'”

  102. 102.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Aji: So true. That someone from an oppressed minority can be elected twice to the most powerful job in the world is very inspirational. Especially when you consider the fact that Black Americans received the right to vote in the South around the time I was born.

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    @Heliopause:
    I actually think Branch Rickey said it better:

    To advise moderation is like going to a stickup man and saying to him: “Don’t use a gun. That’s violent. Why not be a pickpocket instead?” A moderate is a moral pickpocket.

  104. 104.

    am

    @Heliopause:

    That is great, too. The more time passes, the more I think that single letter is among the greatest pieces of writing of the 20th century.

  105. 105.

    Plantsmantx

    And don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, “You’re too arrogant! And if you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I’ll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name. Be still and know that I’m God

    Somebody told a lie one day. They couched it in language. They made everything black, ugly and evil. Look in your dictionary and see the synonyms of the word “black.” It’s always something degrading and low and sinister. Look at the word, “white.” It’s always some pure, high and. I want to get the language so right that everybody here will cry out, “Yes I’m Black and I’m proud of it. I’m Black and I’m beautiful”.

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:
    Which is why I tend to look for other motives. Either they have no understanding of reality or they are assholes. These may not be mutually exclusive.

  110. 110.

    The Raven on the Hill

    Oh, there are so many.

    I like, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”

    I also like this criticism of the centrists of his day, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice,” and when I am tempted by centrism, I remind myself of it.

  111. 111.

    Cervantes

    @JGabriel:

    Now, I personally have no qualms about celebrating McCulloch’s contributions toward passage of a Civil Rights bill on any other day, but to horn in with that idea on the single day of the year America sets aside to celebrate the contributions to America of a black man, Dr. Martin Luther King (whom I note Keller did not mention once in the column)?

    Actually, he did mention Martin, though not by name.

    As for the rest of the article: it’s good to remind everyone, and especially good-faith conservatives (if there are any left), that civil rights are everyone’s rights — not just a favor we do for someone else — and if remembering Bill McCulloch is one way to do this, I’m all for it. McCulloch was not only decent but brave. Ignoring the silence or outright opposition of his party’s leadership, he sponsored civil rights legislation in the House even before JFK presented his own. And he fought Southern Democrats (including Hale Boggs, father of Cokie Roberts) in their attempts to weaken the bill. “Not force or fear, but belief in the inherent equality of man induces me to support this legislation. […] The Constitution doesn’t say that ‘whites’ alone shall have our basic rights, but that we shall all have them.”

    And he later pushed LBJ forward on voting rights as well.

    So yes, let’s remember Bill McCulloch — and others — there were many others — but Keller should have found a better day for it.

    Keller also says “McCulloch’s story is rescued from obscurity” by (his friend) Todd Purdum’s new book. I have nothing against Purdum’s book (yet) but McCulloch’s leading role is hardly obscure.

  112. 112.

    Glocksman

    @MikeJ:

    How about the one I like to tell about the Republican who was going door to door in order to raise money for the old party Chairman’s funeral.

    He got to the first house and asked ‘Would you give $20 to help bury a good Republican?’
    The guy at the door pulled out his wallet and said ‘Here’s a C-note, bury 5 of the bastards.’ :)

  113. 113.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: He defended their “right” to electioneer and keep their cushy church tax exempt status (which btw is special and better–less oversight–than regular tax exempt status).

  115. 115.

    BruceFromOhio

    A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.

    And the real message:

    A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

    These words, among so many others, were spoken at the Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967.

    Rest in peace, Dr. King.

  116. 116.

    HeartlandLiberal

    From MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”. (My home town. I was a teenager in the 1960’s there. In one of the first three integrated high schools in the city.)

    In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.” Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

    http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

  117. 117.

    Nutella

    If you read any feminist blogs you’ll be familiar with the way every discussion abut women gets multiple comments demanding that the discussion topic be changed to include men. It’s usually called out as “What about the menz”.

    That Keller column was a classic “What about the whitez”.

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