MLK

[Guest]

Early evening, April 4th, a shot rings out in the Memphis Sky. Free at Last. They took your Life but they could not take your PRIDE.

May his legacy never be forgotten and his Dream be realized.

[SultryKitten]

Eloquently put! Thank you!

xoxo,

Samantha Sheppard

[gettin' up there-2233]

Ok, sorry for the sacrilege, but I have to share an MLK re-interpretation I heard a comedian do.  The comedian, whose name I do not recall, said that after MLK died it was discovered he had extra-marital affairs with at least a couple of women. The comedian said in light of this discovery, MLK's famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial had always been misinterpreted as "Free at last, free at last!" when he was really just bragging to the crowd: "Three at last, three at last!"😛   

I thought this would be a good one for this board. 

[Guest]

6 hours ago, gettin' up there-2233 said:

Ok, sorry for the sacrilege, but I have to share an MLK re-interpretation I heard a comedian do.  The comedian, whose name I do not recall, said that after MLK died it was discovered he had extra-marital affairs with at least a couple of women. The comedian said in light of this discovery, MLK's famous speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial had always been misinterpreted as "Free at last, free at last!" when he was really just bragging to the crowd: "Three at last, three at last!"😛   

I thought this would be a good one for this board. 

I guess they're everywhere, aren't they? Does anyone else think this is funny?

Thanks gettin'up there-2233 for the window into your soul...on the 49th anniversary of MLK's assassination.

[Guest]

Free but not forgotten❤👄❤👄❤👄❤

[digitalsanity]

But sadly, we still have so much further to go!

[BadBoy]

9 hours ago, MrBigShot said:

I guess they're everywhere, aren't they? Does anyone else think this is funny?

Thanks gettin'up there-2233 for the window into your soul...on the 49th anniversary of MLK's assassination.

Hey, Mr. B.S.,  I can out-liberal you any day of the week with my socialist arm tied behind by tattooed back, and no one has more admiration for Dr. King than I (and a large photo of him hanging in my foyer, just so everyone knows where I stand), but dude, it's always  a good time for a joke, and a joke about a dead guy is just as valid on his anniversary as on any other day.

My fervent wish is that people make fun of me long after I die, it's a form of memory.

[petey-9950]

Thanks Digitalsanity,  Badboy take the night off.  Respect is still respect in my books!!!! Regardless of race 

[boink36]

2 hours ago, BadBoy said:

Hey, Mr. B.S.,  I can out-liberal you any day of the week with my socialist arm tied behind by tattooed back, and no one has more admiration for Dr. King than I (and a large photo of him hanging in my foyer, just so everyone knows where I stand), but dude, it's always  a good time for a joke, and a joke about a dead guy is just as valid on his anniversary as on any other day.

My fervent wish is that people make fun of me long after I die, it's a form of memory.

I have always washed my foyer before a date but I have never hung a photo there. 

[Mr.Pink]

any black chicks having any mlk specials?

[Guest]

14 hours ago, BadBoy said:

Hey, Mr. B.S.,  I can out-liberal you any day of the week with my socialist arm tied behind by tattooed back, and no one has more admiration for Dr. King than I (and a large photo of him hanging in my foyer, just so everyone knows where I stand), but dude, it's always  a good time for a joke, and a joke about a dead guy is just as valid on his anniversary as on any other day.

My fervent wish is that people make fun of me long after I die, it's a form of memory.

LOL! I didn't realize we had a competition going but sure...bring it on!

Look, I appreciate humor as much as the next person but when overt racism is couched under the guise of a "joke", I call BS.

[tide32]

As long as they can keep people poor and uneducated there will be no equality. Greed and power are the true enemies of all free people. 

[ilovewomen]

15 hours ago, Mr.Pink said:

any black chicks having any mlk specials?

Total lack of class

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, ilovewomen said:

Total lack of class

Agree...but the MLK "Joke" is perfectly fine, right?

[ilovewomen]

20 minutes ago, MrBigShot said:

Agree...but the MLK "Joke" is perfectly fine, right?

I didn't like the joke either, but felt I needed to put my $.02 in with the comment about specials

Edited April 6, 2017 by ilovewomen

[SultryKitten]

 

Quote

 

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

 

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

 

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

 

This is the famous speech that MLK spoke, and if you really read this inspiring speech you will see that this isn't just for blacks, but for all of us to open our eyes and know that we were all(every color/race/culture/religion/belief) granted freedom in this country to live as a Democratic Republic nation that has the right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, to choose our destiny, and live as Americans where various people came together to form a "Melting Pot". We can go to school, we can run our own business, we can marry who we want, we can wear whatever we want to wear, we can go on vacations in the most beautiful places in the world, we have invented computers,cars, and planes. We cook extravagant and decadent foods that other countries dream of. We can be rich with our dreams, or we can be poor...that is beauty of the choices we can make. We had laws made so that we could keep striving for our dreams, and yet we are allowing the government more control with the emphasis on letting our children not think, but to do which is causing them to be lazy and entitled. It is also causing a rift amongst fellow citizens of the US to think that we have to pick a side or deal with backlash from that decision instead of understanding that it is okay that we all have different viewpoints based on our faith, culture, race. We let people question if being mixed, gay, white, black, Jew, hetero, etc. is right or wrong instead of embracing the uniqueness between each individual and we argue with the same people for the opinions on what they believe or don't believe.

When I see the above posts with the jokes, or thinking it is okay to post that the black ladies should run a special; I cringe inside because this is not the right way to celebrate an anniversary of one of the most tragic yet inspiring times in history that set the stage for blacks and other individuals to start being recognized for their place in our country. This is a time to reflect and take to heart what his message was about, and his faith that we would all one day be equal and standing side by side with each other, not against. Being behind the computer screen doesn't take away the attitude that you bestow upon others...you are still beholden to God/other beliefs and how it will reflect on your person emotionally. If you are truly that proud of typing things this crude, I truly do feel sorry for you and think it very sad that you are that kind of person.

I, for one, am proud that I am a true "Melting Pot", and am grateful that my ancestors fought and worked hard for me to be where I am today. I would love to see this turn into a positive thing, and not some joke as MLK never meant for it to be that, but a message that would bring peace to a divided nation.

xoxo,

Samantha Sheppard

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, ilovewomen said:

I didn't like the joke either, but felt I needed to put my $.02 in with the comment about specials

It takes courage to call it what it is. Yet, no one has commented on the "Joke" other than me and Samantha. Heck, BadBoy even defended the poster and called me out for not having a sense of humor all in the sprit of "it's just a joke, it's not racist". Well, I call BS.