Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

So very ready.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

So many bastards, so little time.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (LIVE)

10th Anniversary Celebration of the Dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (LIVE)

by | 100 Comments

This post is in: ,

Something Good.  Should be starting “soon”.  Just started!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk_NibKd6kk

Who says one person can’t make a difference?

Update:  I have never heard a stronger speech from Joe Biden than this one today.  He is passionate and strong.  Determined.  Kamala, too.  This is really worth watching.

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    “We should have to fight this hard for our fundamental rights, the right to vote… but fight we must, and fight we will”.

    (from memory, so maybe not perfect)

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I was in class until a couple of minutes ago. Watching MVP now and will catch it all later. Glad you’re highlighting this ceremony.

  7. 7.

    dnfree

    All honor to MLK, but that statue is weird.  It looks like something from the Soviet era in Russia.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    I have never heard a stronger speech from Joe Biden than this one today.  He is passionate and strong.  Determined.  Kamala, too.  This is really worth watching.

  9. 9.

    Fleeting Expletive

    Good speech by Biden.  His speech yesterday in Scranton was worrisome: rambling, repetitive, “not a joke, I’m not kidding” over and over, “Guess what” is a juvenile linguistic device, and saying it thirty times in one speech, just no.

    Sounds like they’ve gotten the message to quit obsessing over numbers and tell people what we want to achieve for children and women and investing in the future.  We’re so oblivious, most of us, to how the rest of the world manages to value people and try to make living easier. We don’t have world-class much of anything because we don’t want to pay for civilization’s amenities like excellent public transportation and family support.

    Lordy I hope Sinema and Manchin get their narcissistic asses in line.  We gotta get the voting law first and foremost or we’re just pissing in the wind.  I will remain optimistic, but nervous.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    @dnfree:

    My favorite thing about it is that it has MLK with his arms crossed staring across the tidal basin at the Jefferson Memorial, as if glaring disapprovingly.

    “Hey, TJ.  I know what you did.”

  11. 11.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @dnfree:

    It looks like something from the Soviet era in Russia.

    You hit the nail on the head! I want to like that statue, but I don’t. MLK deserves a much better memorial.

  14. 14.

    Ohio Mom

    @dnfree: A lot of people feel the same way — when the statue was first unveiled, that was the opinion voiced over and over, including by those in the visual arts (who have a certain credibility the rest of us don’t).

    As I recall, the sculptor was an unlikely choice, a fellow from China whom I can only assume had only a second-hand knowledge of King and the American Civil Rights movement.

    I’ve never thought it was a good likeness or caught MLK’s spirit but of course he deserves to be honored and this monument will have to do.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    deleted —duplicate comment. Now I see why people have been complaining that the site is wacko.

  16. 16.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Ohio Mom:

    As I recall, the sculptor was an unlikely choice, a fellow from China

    I didn’t know that. Perhaps that’s why the aesthetic resemblance to socialist realism. Alas, the critics–whether professionally trained or not–were right. It is not good public art. The man deserves a great memorial, not a barely passable one that captures neither essence nor likeness. Again, alas, it appears this is the one we’re stuck with.

  19. 19.

    PJ

    @O. Felix Culpa: So much public art since the 1970s has been godawful.  The last really moving piece I’ve seen was the Vietnam War Memorial by Maya Lin.  I don’t know who is making the decisions, but, frankly, conservatives and authoritarians tend to have terrible taste in art, because feeling complicated or dark emotions is the last thing they want.  (Not that bad taste is reserved to any part of the political spectrum – plenty of leftists are happy to avoid the complexity of life.)

  21. 21.

    Chris

    @PJ:

    The best war memorial in DC is the Vietnam memorial, and the best presidential one is the FDR.

    Vietnam you covered.  FDR – it’s the only one that actually feels human-sized, and not like some temple to an Olympian god.  Given how much FDR did to make the government work for ordinary people, I like to think he’d appreciate being represented on a scale that’s so much more accessible.

  22. 22.

    UncleEbeneezer

    It should probably be noted that MLK said and did things that made White People VERY uncomfortable, defensive and angry, and incurred a monumental Whitelash.  He was one of the most hated Black people in the US, when he was doing his most important work.  Anyone who thinks today’s activists are ruining everything by not coddling White Feelings enough, really needs to take a deeper look at MLK’s actual words and actions.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @UncleEbeneezer: How DARE Martin Luther King demand that garbage workers be paid a fair wage and be treated with dignity!!

    Biden’s point was good.  The evil is always there, it was coaxed out under the rock by T****, and we have to fight it.  Always.

  25. 25.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @PJ: The Vietnam War memorial is extraordinary, and I remember how much the right-wingers hated it initially. I wish that MLK had been honored by something equally profound.

    @UncleEbeneezer: Agreed about the lynching victims memorial. It appears to be an effective work of art. I would say the same about the holocaust memorial in Berlin. Nothing can do that horror full justice, but the work was much more impactful than I expected.

  26. 26.

    Ohio Mom

    @Chris: Yes, I liked the FDR memorial very much. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, but once you arrive, the siting is perfect.

    I suspect it doesn’t get visited enough, which is double-edged — because we practically had it to ourselves, we could immerse ourselves. The Lincoln Memorial on the other hand, was like traversing a big train station during rush hour. Made it hard to concentrate.

    I also somehow liked the Korean War Memorial in spite of its literalness. Maybe it was the mood I was in that day…

  27. 27.

    germy

    At informal 'bitching' dinners, Pete Buttigieg donors are chattering about prodding him to run against Kamala Harris in 2024 if Biden backs out t.co/iqA1rSIevp via @adamwren @rbravender

    — Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) October 21, 2021

    "More than two dozen Democratic donors who want to eventually see the 39-year-old transportation secretary in the White House have been attending secret & informal dinners over the summer and into late September in traditional Democratic money-raising hubs"t.co/SHohsQt4eR

    — Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) October 21, 2021

    Another fascinating/revealing tidbit in this story:
    "Harris donors are 'sad' about the current state of her political operation,'" one donor tells Insider. "We're really disappointed that it's falling apart. It doesn't seem to be serving her future." t.co/SHohsQt4eR

    — Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) October 21, 2021

  28. 28.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    Am I supposed to wait for 20 posts before I change the subject? I feel bad that I’ve been mostly a lurker & here I am breaking rules & raining on the thread, but I’ve had that morning & I need to unload.

    My oldest sister has been lost to me for awhile. She lives on the other side of the country, never goes anywhere without a gun, and is fullblown Trump cultist. I wouldn’t be surprised if she and/or her husband were there 1/6. I live within 5 miles of the Capitol, but she would never call me; she never calls when she’s on the east coast. When covid struck, I tried calling and emailing several times. We’re both in our 70s, and how much time is there to make amends and reconnect? We talked a little, but she couldn’t wait to get off the phone. I think she really thought I was evil incarnate.

    Well, time has run out. My brother-in-law called my younger sister this morning to let us know that she passed from covid this morning. Apparently he and my sister got sick, their daughter came up from AZ with her daughters to help out, and they got sick too. They all took ivermectin (insert screaming emoji here), and everyone else got better, but my sister got worse. They finally took her to the emergency room last night, but it was too late.

    I think the numbness I feel is because the rage and sadness are in such equal balance. Iver-fucking-mectin!?! Couldn’t they at least have taken her to get the ridiculously expensive (but free to her) Regeneron? Isn’t that what all the good cultists are getting this year? And of COURSE she wasn’t vaccinated! What good cultist would be vaccinated?!? But also, now the sister who shared the same birthdate will never again ask me what flavor cake I’m having this year, or remind me that for years she thought I really was her birthday present when she turned four.

    To top everything off, I ventured onto Facebook, something I very rarely do, to let the extended family know, and Facebook kindly reminded me of my post 7 years ago today. Letting the family know that my next older sister had passed that morning. I think I’m going to stay in bed on 10/21 from now on, and not answer the phone or use social media at all. Thanks for letting me blow off steam.

  30. 30.

    leeleeFL

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): That type of post is necessary and you never have to worry about sharing here.

    I am so very sorry for your loss.  Our Family has best material and opportunity to break our hearts, and, sadly, they do it so much of the time.

    I hope you can find some peace at this sad time.

  31. 31.

    Ohio Mom

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): Do not apologize about changing the subject, especially with what you are going through!

    It seems to me that maybe the saddest thing is that you’ve been robbed of your hope for a reconciliation. But reconciliation takes two and you weren’t going to get that.

    Be angry at your sister for creating the rift, rail against the universe for one unfortunate circumstance after another. But do not blame yourself for anything, cut yourself a lot of slack, and be extra kind to yourself. You are experiencing a great loss.

  32. 32.

    Mike in NC

    I’ve visited just about all of the monuments and memorials in DC, some good and others not so great. Hopefully there will never be one to honor the Orange Anus who launched an attempted coup.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): I am in tears reading what you wrote.  I am sorry for your loss.  Even though you were estranged from who your sister became, you have still lost your the sister who is part of all those wonderful sister memories from before.

    And then to be reminded of the loss of another sister, that’s just too much.  I am so sorry.

  35. 35.

    Quiltingfool

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): I’m so sorry for your loss.  And that mourning the loss of your sister is compounded with frustration – she didn’t have to die.

    Please take care of yourself.  I can’t speak for anyone else, but if you need to talk about something that isn’t on topic, I’m good with that. This is a caring community, and people are here for you.

    Blessings be upon you and yours.

  36. 36.

    Ohio Mom

    @leeleeFL: “Our Family has best material and opportunity to break our hearts, and, sadly, they do it so much of the time.” Ain’t that the truth. I think I will “borrow” this thought, it is sure to come in useful one day.

    @Mike in NC: In my more hopeful moments, I expect that in the future, school children will be taught that our surviving January 6 shows how strong and righteous our system of government is. I wouldn’t describe it that way but things do get glossed over for the kiddies (see the usual treatment of Thanksgiving for example).

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):

    It’s good to see you again, and it’s an open thread, so nothing’s off topic.

    So sorry about both of your sisters. I can empathise a little bit. Today would have been my younger sister’s 76th birthday. She died last November (not of Covid, although Covid stresses on health care may have played a role). Her twin brother, still alive and well AFAIK, hasn’t been vaccinated, but he’s not a nut job, just someone who’s turned procrastination and irresoluteness into an art form. Younger brother and his partner are passionately anti-vaxx RWNJs, and both tested positive late last week. It’s equal measures infuriating and tragic, and I really do get your conflicting emotions.

    I wish you well and hope you’ll come back to BJ more often.

  41. 41.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    I knew I came to the right place. I had to step away for a bit, and I came back to so much comfort! You all get it exactly, and so many of you have been there yourselves. Yes, it’s the loss, but also the loss of a chance at redemption. And the waste! The waste!

    SiubhanDuinne, I hope your brother & his partner fare better than my sister. Have they gotten the Regeneron? My younger sister got covid in August and her rheumatologist insisted she get it, even though she’s fully vaxxed. As I’m sure you know, it works best the sooner you get it, when symptoms are milder.

    Anyway, thank you everyone for your kind words. It feels like a giant, warm hug. I really needed it today.

  42. 42.

    Ruckus

    I just listened to the entire thing.

    WG you are right this is one of the best presidential speeches I’ve heard, going back to when I was a child and hearing JFK. And this was even better because it didn’t sound like a speech, but it sounded like a man speaking from deep inside. And I liked the VP as well because she speaks like her boss, from their conviction and how they feel and see the world. We weren’t wrong in electing them, they may be the best team in this office. I know Obama was very, very good, I worked and voted for him and am so very glad I did. He was very good as president. This team is different, at a different time, and I think they may be the best team even if it is because Joe learned from his time as VP.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    For the record, probably 90% of my posts are open threads.  Exceptions are posts where someone is being featured – authors, artists, On the Road, furry friends, guest posts, etc.

    The other exception would be a site maintenance post which I will refer back to for details, or I might send the link to the developer.

    I try to remember to add Open Thread as a category for posts other than the types I listed.  Even if I forget, unless it’s in one of the categories above, you can always consider any of my posts as an open thread.

    The only time I get cranky is when someone takes a dump in a political action post, or a “we have agency” post to say how hopeless it all is.  Someone did that on comment #1 of a recent post, and I was silently cranky about that.

  45. 45.

    JML

    @Ohio Mom: I liked the Korean War Memorial too. (I swear one of the faces looks like Father Mulcahy from M*A*S*H…which might make me like it 10% more)

  46. 46.

    phdesmond

    WaterGirl,  thanks for the favorable review on the front page.  i watched, and it was indeed good.

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    A giant marble butt crack with an AK47 sticking out?  Wouldn’t even need a plaque, everyone would know it’s about that particular anus.

    A brown stone pile of crap, looking like it’s melting in the sun with flies swarming around?

    Something even more disgusting?

  49. 49.

    Geminid

    Now low down Glenn Youngkin uses an excerpt from Dr. King’s speech to launch into warnings about Critical Race Theory being taught in Virginia’s public schools. Just despicable. A lot of conservatives do this now, pretending that we’ve reached a point where America’s only racism problem is white people being unjustly called racists.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @JML:

    I had never really looked at that memorial and it is rather stunning actually. Now that I’m retired one of my goals is to travel to DC and spend time seeing the various memorials and museums. Want to do it right though, train to Vancouver, TransCanadian RR to Montreal and then the train down to DC. Couple of weeks there ought to about do it.

  53. 53.

    phdesmond

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    i followed your link, saw the pic, and thought, “that’s how Dalí might have painted the Black crucifixions — the bases of 816 crosses, viewed from below as they rise into heaven.”

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    Thing is, they know they are wrong.

    They are trying to justify their asinine wrongness because they know. Hate is a strong emotion, but it requires justification to maintain. Racist white people have been looking for that justification for hundreds of years. I’m doubting that they will actually find even one reason, but not doubting at all that they will keep looking.

  58. 58.

    raven

    ”
    On October 11, 1996 then-retired General (later Secretary of State under Bush III) Colin Powell ended up apologizing for a racist remark made at a speech given at the Business Leadership Summit in Stockton, California; The subject was “Affirmative Action and the Global Economy”.
    “If you give 1.3 billion Chinamen access to home shopping on television, (communism) is over, because there is no way communism can compete with a salad shooter for $9.95.”

  59. 59.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: I know, right? It surprised me that Ivanka and Jared didn’t try to charge admission to all those fabulous Smithsonian places that have always been free to the public. Criminality is in their DNA.

  60. 60.

    hueyplong

    Apparently MT Greene and L Cheney have had a sharp exchange on the floor of the House.

    No report yet of gruesome injuries, so I’m mildly disappointed

     

    Melanie Zanona  @MZanona  52m

    A little drama on the House floor just now. MTG confronted Cheney and called her a “joke,” per
    @kristin__wilson
    . Cheney said back that MTG was a joke & didn’t she need to be focusing on her anti-Semitic space lasers, per source. MTG yelled back, “I never said that”

  63. 63.

    H.E.Wolf

    @O. Felix Culpa:MLK deserves a much better memorial. ​

      Not solely a memorial to MLK, but the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL – also by Maya Lin – is very moving.

    Lin based the design on the Old Testament verse, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”.

    Water flows across the names of those who died in the civil rights movement… and visitors can reach through the veil of water and touch the names.

    splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @H.E.Wolf: The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is a pretty special place.  It is the old Loraine Motel where King was shot.  But the Lorraine had a history prior to that.  The white and black musician who recorded at Stax stayed there because it wasn’t segregated and it had a pool that everyone could use.

    Most of the location has been converted to exhibits but the rooms that King, Young, etc., had on 4/4/68 have been preserved.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @H.E.Wolf: Yesterday Agri-Pulse magazine published a good interview with the new Undersecretary of Agriculture for Rural Development,  Xochitl Torres-Small. It’s titled, “Torres-Small eyes rural communities as key to economic recovery.”  Torres-Small, or “Xoch, as she likes to be called,” spoke from her Las Cruces home “with suitcases packed for an upcoming move to the nation’s Capital.”

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @dnfree:

    It looks like something from the Soviet era in Russia.

    Totally agree. One thing I learned from the controversy over the magnificent Viet Nam Veterans Memorial is that some people really like statues.

  74. 74.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ohio Mom:I also somehow liked the Korean War Memorial in spite of its literalness. Maybe it was the mood I was in that day…

    I didn’t even know there was a Korean War Memorial until I tripped over it by accident one day, coming down from the Lincoln Memorial.

    It’s become my personal favorite of all the memorials on the Mall.  While being an infantryman in a land war has moments of great danger, these statues say that a lot more of the time, it’s just a long, weary slog.

    The FDR Memorial is another favorite of mine. Like others have said, it’s on a very human scale.

    My least favorite is the WWII memorial.  It looks and feels generic.  And it’s got this weird thing going on where it looks like they’ve divided the states between the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of war.  Maybe someday they’ll raze it and try again.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    @KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)):

    I’m so sorry that you sister’s passing is fraught with all the unresolved and impossible to accept issues.  It makes it so confusing. Maybe at some point when some of the shock and frustration have lessened, you can think about the loving times and happier memories – say goodbye to that sister and let yourself grieve that loss.
    Sending you a big hug.

  80. 80.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @H.E.Wolf: Thank you for that link–I had never seen that memorial. Maya Lin has a gift for making visual and three-dimensional the heart of a matter.

  81. 81.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    DC Native. Grew up there so have seen the monument development over the decades.

    I’m another who is sorely disappointed in the “socialist realism” monument for MLK. It’s probably the weakest one of those done in the last 20+ years. Which is sad.

  82. 82.

    phdesmond

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    thanks for the suggestion, Uncle Eb.

    the thoughts i had on seeing your link have spun themselves into a poem.  i refrain from posting it now for copyright reasons, but there’s no limit to gratitude.  :-)

    that korean monument is equally wild!

  84. 84.

    Mike in NC

    @lowtechcyclist:  The WW2 Memorial is pretty meaningless because it was changed over and over again. There was supposed to have been a dedicated museum located underneath it but that plan was dropped. My dad and my wife’s dad were WW2 vets and didn’t live long enough to see it, but I suspect they would also have been disappointed by the thing.

    Some day we want to see the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans.

  85. 85.

    Bupalos

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, I’ve lost folks who had long since become “dead to me,” and the reality is that the final loss hurts just as much as it ever would have, because it brings back all that promise and all the memories, and gavels down all the loss of that promise and those memories all at once.

    I keep thinking somehow we can do better by these Trumpers, these angry, burnt children so in need of saving. But I remain at a loss as to what we’re to do.

  86. 86.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus: The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is a pretty special place. […]

     Thanks for posting this. Special indeed. If I get a chance to visit my cousins in Knoxville, I’ll ask if we can go on a road trip to see it.

  87. 87.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Geminid: Yesterday Agri-Pulse magazine published a good interview with the new Undersecretary of Agriculture for Rural Development, Xochitl Torres-Small.​

    Thank you so much for remembering that I’m interested in her! I look forward to reading the article.

  91. 91.

    H.E.Wolf

    @O. Felix Culpa: ​
      Your impression of Maya Lin matches mine. Hers is a talent that fills me with awe, much like composers of music.

    Off now to work on a far less glamorous endeavor – proofreading. :)

  98. 98.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @WaterGirl: My comment was actually a not-so-subtle jab at the commenters who are twisting their undies in knots in concern about how anti-racist activists nowadays are all protesting wrong by not coddling white feelings (in other threads).  MLK, despite the whitewashed myth that exists now, had a whole lot to say about White People, White Supremacy and Racism that was pretty unflinching and angered White People so much that they literally murdered him.

  100. 100.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Steve in the ATL: @H.E.Wolf: that’s a 6+ hours drive to cay way. Do you have cousins in, maybe, West Memphis, Arkansas?​

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Steve in the ATL: She could also hit the Stax museum and then it would be totally worth the drive.

    @eclare: @Omnes Omnibus: Don’t forget Sun Studios.​
     
    Glad to have the suggestions, and the road-distance reality check.

    If/when (when; I’m thinking positive) I’m there, all of these are on the must-see list. Thank you!

Comments are closed.