Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Thanks to how they’ve timed their visit to me, my parents are missing their local No Kings event for the first time since Trump 2.0 began. I feel vaguely guilty about it, but they insist it’s not an issue and have even purchased me a circular saw, as one does for one’s daughter.
When researching my most recent podcast episode on the Book of Job, I came across some thoughts from Benjamin Franklin that seemed appropriate to share here this morning.
I’ve got a long travel day coming up tomorrow—heading to Tucson for a client’s event. I’ve been downloading podcasts to listen to on the flights, and while sampling shows over the weekend, I wound up listening to an entire series I thought I’d share here. It’s called Flashpoint. It’s a Tenderfoot/IHeartMedia show that came out this past summer (you can find it on Apple Podcasts here, or on Spotify here).
Flashpoint is nominally about Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bomber. What it really manages to do is to use his story as a lens to examine home-grown right-wing terrorism, which the show casts as “America’s greatest threat.” (Rudolph, by-the-bye, was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to avoid the death penalty; he recently tried to weasel out of that deal, but the life sentence was just upheld this past February.)
It turns out that Cole Locasio, the young journalist presenting the show, has a strange personal connection to the case. I won’t spoil that for you. What I will express is my admiration for the way he works to present the points of view of the people most affected by Rudolph’s crimes, particularly those injured in the 1997 Atlanta Northside Family Planning Services clinic bombings.
If you listen to nothing else, listen to the final episode (episode 8, “The Paradox”). It is a full-throated defense of abortion rights—a former clinic nurse injured in the bombing gives exceptionally stirring testimony. It’s a rousing reminder of what we are deciding in this race: whether or not we as a country capitulate to the right-wing terrorists who have been working to crush our institutions and our rights for the last 60-plus years.
Another recommendation on this theme (and a few others that are great, but less relevant) after the jump.
Uneasy Listening – Two Podcasts About Abortion RightsPost + Comments (71)
Among the most painful bits of Dr. King’s legacy is how so much of it’s reduced to “I Have a Dream.” It’s true that it’s a landmark speech, powerful and moving…
…and always heard out of context of the other, more direct speeches that graced the March on Washington (a March organized by an openly Gay Man, no less – go look up the badass Bayard Rustin, please and thank you!). As if the marchers just wanted to spend all day on their feet, listening to platitudes and winsome ideas!
I’m not going to dive into that context, I assume your Google button ain’t broke. :) What I will do, is talk about a couple of other works by Dr. King, works that ground him in the realities he fought to overcome, and that echo into these times.
The text for the afternoon will be taken from two works from near Dr. King’s passing:
I post all this to encourage you to read/listen to the above in full. To underline that Dr. King was far richer a thinker and even rabble-rouser than gets noticed — that the Hoover FBI feared him for damned good reasons. If you chose to read the above docs, and skip the rest of this? HELL YA!
But for those who want more? Follow…
See, Dr. King did not buy into a color-blind society. That wasn’t the context he gave his “Dream” speech under. The context, the fuller context of his work and life’s mission, is made plain by this remarkable passage in DRUM:
[…]when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, “Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. [laughter] You’re just as poor as Negroes.”And I said, “You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white.
And you’re so poor you can’t send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march.”
Now that’s a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, (Make it plain) he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white—and can’t hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out.
And there’s so much more.
We did, in fact, steal the Black Hills. If that offends you, it should. https://t.co/XXxO5feotC
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) November 17, 2021
Imagine being upset that your son learned the truth about The Black Hills and feeling powerful that your complaint could obstruct the teaching of truth for years to come.
My G-d. White supremacy doesn't just wear a hood. pic.twitter.com/ERZnXxENdt— Michael W. Twitty (@KosherSoul) November 17, 2021