When You Dance ...
“Like a mountain that's growing, a river that flows ….”
– Neil Young; When You Dance
In the last month of his life, as Alvin Adams noted (Jet; March 5, 1965), Malcolm X traveled to the south to deliver two important speeches. The first was in Jackson, to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The second was to young people attending an event in Selma sponsored by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. This was at a time when Martin Luther King, Jr., was being held in jail.
A newspaper reporter wrote about how King's aides were unset by how intensely the young people were moved by Malcolm's powerful presentation. Two aides – Andrew Young and James Bevel – confronted Malcolm after his speech. They were concerned that he was interfering with King's plans. This led to Malcolm uttering his classic line: “Remember this – nobody puts words in my mouth.”
Malcolm met briefly with Coretta Scott King before leaving. He explained that he was not there to disrupt her husband's efforts. Rather, he was intent upon showing the white leaders in Selma that if they wouldn't deal with Martin, they'd soon have to deal with him.
Mrs. King understood. She was aware that her husband and Malcolm had been quietly communicating with one another through an attorney in Chicago. And, of course, the intelligence community of the time was also aware of these communications. Everyone involved recognized that any coordination between Martin and Malcolm would change the dynamics of the Civil Rights movement. Individuals such as J. Edgar Hoover were intent upon stopping this by any means necessary.
History does not repeat – rather, it rhymes. Thus, when we look to the past for insights on the present and future, we cannot expect circumstances to be exact. There is no Martin or Malcolm today, yet we can still learn valuable lessons by way of their experiences. We can use those lessons as models that can be applied to current events.
There are forces today, for example, that want to create divisions within the Democratic Party. These forces are not exclusively domestic. They seek to exploit similar fractures as were created in 2016. They want you to believe that as a Democrat, you cannot support Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Representative that danced in college, or one that used a “curse” word to accurately describe Donald Trump.
More, they are invested in creating fissures within the Democratic Party as we enter the 2020 presidential primaries. They have identified areas that have the potential to divide the people in our party, including age, ethnicity, and gender, along with various candidates' backgrounds and positions on issues. In every instance, they will seek to inject emotional – rather than rational – energy into discussions ….thus pushing discussions into debates, and debates into arguments.
Malcolm used to teach that not every man who throws worms into the water is a friend of the fish. There is wisdom in that teaching that is of value today, in our day-to-day lives. It doesn't mean that individuals or groups within the Democratic Party are not going to favor a specific candidate. Or that women are not going to advocate for a female candidate on the 2020 ticket. No, we can anticipate with certainty that good Democrats will make a very strong case for the candidate they prefer, because we have so many qualified, high-quality candidates.
Rather, it means that we should all – and I include myself – should take care to focus upon the strengths of our preferred candidates, without belittling and insulting other candidates, and hence their many supporters. To the exact extent that we do this in a positive way, we strengthen the party. And we can compare this possibility with the divisive primaries of past, that led to eventual defeats.
If we do this, two things will happen. Those seeking to divide, including the divisive voices on the internet, will be easily isolated and ignored. And we can reconstruct the Obama coalition's excitement from 2008, and not only win the White House, but reclaim the Senate. That will take all of our best efforts
Remember! Only you can prevent boorish liars (republicans) from winning elections.
H2O Man
= new reply since forum marked as read
Vote for me and I'll set you free! Only I can fix it! How can anybody vote for a water man? I'll make the sun shine and he'll dry up! The radical left quotes Malcom X!
Water man will try to RUST YOUR GUNS!
People will try to steer you into a mindless rage. Don't be like the person pictured above.
