I Have Issues (A Political Blog)
Coverage and opinion of political and social issues, as well as commentary on local, state and world news and coverage of the ongoing 2008 political campaign.
According to CFI’s new report, “Analysis of Convention Donors,” since the last presidential election, the corporations funding the conventions have spent more than $1.1 billion lobbying the federal government. Add to it the millions they pour into the conventions. Says Weissman: “In return for this money, the parties, through the host committees, offer access to top politicians, to the president, the future president, vice president, cabinet officials, senators, congressmen. They promise these companies who are giving that they will be able to not only get close to these people by hosting receptions, by access to VIP areas, but they’ll actually have meetings with them.”
Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
King has in the time since received much deserved honors, from everything including a federal holiday to being featured on a U.S. postage stamp.
However, important aspects of his legacy tend to get overlooked This side of King is especially relevant today.
Amy Goodman recalls King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech in her latest column:
He said: “A few years ago, there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”
He went on, “I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
In recent years, King's message has been softened and depoliticized by the media. The same media who praise him now attacked him viciously in 1968.
As Goodman points out:
Time magazine called the speech “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” The Washington Post declared that King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”
One can't help but think of the race-bating that goes on today in the coverage of civil rights issues at FOX News. I can't count how many times I've heard a current black leader attacked in similar terms by the network (and other cable channels). It's usually followed by some comment that if Dr. King were alive, he'd disown today's civil rights leaders.
If King were alive, these same commentators would be attacking him just as hard and in the same manner.
In today's AP story the Rev. Jesse Jackson put it this way:
“He is a beloved man today, but a hated man when he was killed,” Jackson said.
However, the softening of King's message is not limited to the media. Even organizers of King Day events tend to shy away from the relevance of his activism to today's issues, perhaps out of fear of controversy.
I'm reminded of 2003, just prior to the outbreak of war with Iraq. I was part of M.A.P.S., a student antiwar group at Marshall University. The organization decided to take part in the King Day observances in Huntington that year. However, some organizers of the event tried to forbid antiwar messages of any kind from being a part of it, out of fear that it would become too politicized.
Apparently, some of us overlooked the part of King's life where he went to great lengths to avoid hot issues.
The contemporary version of King seems to end with the "I Have a Dream" speech and omits the years leading up to his death, one of the most active periods of his life.
In addition to his opposition to the war, another overlooked part of King's life is his work to address the issue of wealth disparity and poverty in America.
At the time of his death, King was preparing to take part in the "Poor People's March on Washington."
My father spent his life in the trenches of a war that poses a true threat to our peace and security as a nation. He fought the war on poverty with the sanitation workers in Memphis, and he was moved to continue that fight as he witnessed barely clothed children in Marks, Miss., and a mother in Newark, N.J., raising her children in a rat-infested apartment.
Four decades have come and gone, but as I have traveled the country continuing the fight on poverty, I have seen firsthand that the poverty remains the same.
I urge our nation, our citizens, our businesses, our government and our presidential hopefuls to remember my father’s caution in his final sermon: There is no such thing as a conscientious objector in the war on poverty.
Tomas Young was one of those injured, on April 4, 2004, in Sadr City. Young is the subject of a new feature documentary by legendary TV talk-show host Phil Donahue and filmmaker Ellen Spiro, called “Body of War.” In it, Young describes the incident that has left him paralyzed from the chest down:
[...]
The film documents his struggle, coping with severe paralysis and life in a wheelchair, its impact on his psyche, his wrecked marriage, his family and his political development from military enlistee into a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Donahue has his own personal link to the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It was just weeks before the invasion that his nightly program, MSNBC’s top-rated show, was canceled. As revealed shortly thereafter in a leaked memo, Donahue presented a “difficult public face for NBC in a time of war. He seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration’s motives … at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity.”
[...]
“Body of War” depicts the personal cost of war. In one of the most moving scenes in the film, Young meets Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator, with the most votes cast in Senate history (more than 18,000). Byrd said his “no” vote on the Iraq war resolution was the most important of his life. Young helps him read the names of the 23 senators who voted against the war resolution. Byrd reflects: “The immortal 23. Our founders would be so proud.” Turning to Young, he says: “Thank you for your service. Man, you’ve made a great sacrifice. You served your country well.” Young replies, “As have you, sir.”
Trailer:
"Body of War" Web site can be found by clicking here.
Heath Harrison is a writer whose work has appeared in Bejeezus magazine, Freepress.net, The Herald-Dispatch and West Virginia Blue, among others. He is a former student activist, campaign worker and graduate of the master’s program at Marshall University. In addition to writing, he is a published cartoonist and photographer and Herald-Dispatch page designer.
