Something we should never ever forget

[Bluzmann57]

Reverend Martin Luther King was brutally murdered because he was a leader in the civil rights movement in this country. We now have a man of color as our President. Yes, Obama makes mistakes. We all do. But without Reverend Doctor King, Obama would not be president. Period. So when you all hammer the President, just remember that there were brave men and women who led the way. Without them, we would never be able to criticize Obama. Let Freedom Ring!

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Obama is no King.

Period. Apples and Oranges.

From wiki:

>>>>Starting in 1965, King began to express doubts about the United States' role in the Vietnam War. In an April 4, 1967 appearance at the New York City Riverside Church—exactly one year before his death—King delivered a speech titled "Beyond Vietnam".<82> In the speech, he spoke strongly against the U.S.'s role in the war, insisting that the U.S. was in Vietnam "to occupy it as an American colony"<83> and calling the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today".<84> He also argued that the country needed larger and broader moral changes:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."<85>

King also was opposed to the Vietnam War on the grounds that the war took money and resources that could have been spent on social welfare services like the War on Poverty. The United States Congress was spending more and more on the military and less and less on anti-poverty programs at the same time. He summed up this aspect by saying, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death".<85>

Many white southern segregationists vilified King; moreover, this speech soured his relationship with many members of the mainstream media. Life magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi",<82> and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."<86>

King stated that North Vietnam "did not begin to send in any large number of supplies or men until American forces had arrived in the tens of thousands".<87> King also criticized the United States' resistance to North Vietnam's land reforms.<88> He accused the United States of having killed a million Vietnamese, "mostly children."<89>>>>>>>>

[emilyg]

4. Amen.

[The Doctor.]

11. Uhhh.... no such comparison was made.

Obama is a bright guy, and I have little doubt he wants to do good, but he apparently has no intention of rocking the boat.

Which is a damn shame.

[HughMoran]

12. O/P never said he was

Why did you feel the need to make such a comparison? O/P said that Kink helped to make Obama's Presidency possible. It's all good.

[happy_liberal]

2. I think he was murdered because of his stance on the vietnam war

and Obama would do well to read what MLK was teaching us...

Martin Luther King’s Best Speech Ever on the Vietnam War
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7492770

[dflprincess]

6. His stance on Vietnam and, I think, the Poor People's March he was planning

had something to do with it.

The march was to include poor people of all colors and, when you think of it, what could be more of a threat to the status quo than that? You get all these people together and they start figuring out that their economic situation gives them a whole lot more in common than their skin color makes them different and the PTB are going to get real nervous.

[LWolf]

3. Obama is no MLK.

I agree that MLK, along with other champions of civil rights paved the way for a person of color to be elected president.

And I, along with many others, shed a few tears of joy that a person of color, any color outside of white, WAS elected on November 2, 2008. Despite the fact that the achievement was only skin-deep.

I don't think we've really come as far as it appears. If Obama were not as mainstream center-right as he is, he wouldn't have been elected. Electing a person of color who actually championed the have-nots, instead of pandering to the haves, did not and will not happen; in the near future, or perhaps in my life time.

[FACTSfirst]

5. MLK had guts...

Obama gives good speeches but lacks the guts to deliver what he promises.Sorry.

[SeattleGirl]

7. Bullshit.

He's delivered plenty. Not everything, no. And on some things, I do think he's been rather slow. But YOU take an 8 year mess and YOU clean it up overnight, and then we'll talk.

[texastoast]

8. Oh now

There you go--pissing on the piss-on-Obama folks.

I sent off an email about the very thing you posted today. Bush got us into a big ass mess and we should all be thankful that we've got someone a lot smarter with a much bigger populist view than we had for eight years. But some just need that instant gratification. When the barn has been dirty for eight years, it is going to take time to make things right.

[SeattleGirl]

10. Yeah, my bad

:evilgrin:

[FACTSfirst]

17. I'm sorry...

I forgot about the Nobel Peace Prize.

NEXT TIME IM VOTING FOR HILLARY!!!!

[SeattleGirl]

19. Go back to your basement.

And quit bitching. Yes, bitching.

There is such a thing a honest criticism; you don't make the bar here.

[HughMoran]

13. It was not a comparison

enjoy your stay...

[Jennicut]

9. I don't think this post is comparing Obama to King.

I think it is pointing out that there were people like King that led the way to get Obama in a position to win the election.

[HughMoran]

14. Of course it wasn't, but that won't stop those looking to take a "free shot" at Obama

This place is so pathetic at times, isn't it?

[Liberty Belle]

15. There is a theory that he was not slain for that reason but rather

Because he had begun trying to unite three powerful forces: labor, the anti-war movement, and the civil rights movement --something the establishment forces were not about to have happen. I heard one of King's close colleagues who was with him when he was assassinated state that this is what he believes.

[FrenchieCat]

16. This whole discussion is so disgusting, I don't know what to say....

Indeed Dr. King and all of those who were brave enough to participate,
are the reason that Black folks got their equal rights....
however, criticism has nothing to do with anything, since
the right to criticize is not exactly what the Black struggle was about;
it was about the right of being treated with dignity, respect and with all rights
given to others.

As for those who say that Obama is no King...
that is correct, Obama is obama.....so fuck those who
feel compel of comparing the two, to then concluding
that one is not like the other.
That's right; fuck you (not you)

[Mind_your_head]

18. +1