"At Canaan's Edge:

[H2O Man]

America in the King Years 1965-68" by Taylor Branch.

The 1-6-06 TIME has an exclusive book excerpt from the third of Taylor Branch's new book, detailing "the secret agony of Martin Luther King, Jr." I'll quote part of it from April, 1968, titled "Into the Valley of Death." It tells of the suffering that Martin experienced when his weaker associates began to betray the movement. Some of the discussions on DU:GD about people planning to quit the democratic party now reminded me of this section of the article:

"His appeal backfired by reopening dissent against the Washington campaign itself. Andrew Young warned that the whole plan might be moot for the year, anyway, as the tangled logistics could well push the start back into June, when the summer recess of Congress would deprive them of 'Pharaoh' rulers to plague. Young proposed to make constructive use of delay, and questioned the enormous effort to assemble and maintain a novel protest army of polyglot poor people in Washington. He doubted King's white attorney and closest confidant Stanley Levison's analogy with the Bonus Marchers of 1932-34, whose suffering and rejection had kindled delayed support for New Deal initiatives, and King aide James Bevel renewed his attack on the entire calculation. 'Aw, that's just a bunch of bullshit,' he declared. 'We don't need to be hanging around Washington. We need to stop this war.' Bevel described Vietnam as a political sickness more deeply rooted than poverty, and his rhetoric bristled with street violence poised ingeniously at the limit of nonviolence. Jesse Jackson, like Bevel, excelled in slashing vocabulary that suggested a competitive preacher's 'chops' better suited to the new moods than King's ecumenical language. Jackson called Memphis too small, and Washington too unformed.

"This time King stood seething. 'Ralph, give me my car keys,' he said quietly. Abernathy surrendered them with a stricken, quizzical look as King said they could go on without them. 'He did something I've never heard him do before,' Levison confided afterward on his wiretapped phone. 'He criticized three members of the staff with his eloquence. And believe me, that's murder. And was very negative.' King said Young had given in to doubt, Bevel to brains, and Jackson to ambition.He said they had forgotten the simple truths of witness. He said the movement had made them, and now they were using the movement to promote themselves. He confronted Bevel, who had been a mentor to Jackson and Young, as a genius who flummoxed his own heart. 'You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea,' said King. 'Bevel, I think you owe me one.'

"Abernathy, Jackson and Young rushed after King. 'Doc, doc, don't worry!' called Jackson in the stairwell. 'Everything's going to be all right.'

"King whirled on a landing and pointed up to shout. 'Jesse, everything's not going to be all right!' he cried. 'If things keep going the way they're going now, it's not SCLC but the whole country that's in trouble. I'm not asking, "Support me." I don't need this. But if you're so interested in doing your own thing that you can't do what the organization's structured to do, if you want to carve out your own niche in society, go ahead. But for God's sake, don't bother me!' His fury ecoed in the conference room." (pages 52-3 in TIME)

I think that we are back to that point again today. We all have a choice, and like Martin said, although we may wish we were not confronted with the situation that confronts us, and while we might wish we did not have to make a choice, we need to now.

I'm not going to quit the democratic party. But I do think that those of us at the grass-roots level should dedicate ourselves to moving the party in King's direction.

[H2O Man]

1. A favorite photo ....

[Straight Shooter]

2. Andrew Young's star continued to rise in the political heavens.

Very interesting. Very interesting, indeed.

Thank you for this important information, and advice.

[Stephanie]

3. they all put self-promotion ahead of everything else

ambition and greed is killing this country

[starroute]

4. With all due respect, the Democratic Party is not a movement

We haven't betrayed the Democratic Party -- but it has betrayed us, over and over again. It is no longer the party of FDR, or even the party of John Kennedy. How can you be true to something that isn't true to you?

The remaining appeals of the party are all false ones. It offers the lure of an easy route to power and influence. It offers the mirage of a quick fix, without confronting the far deeper crisis that exists in our electoral system. It offers the promise that simple, safe, conventional activities like voting and grassroots organizing can set everything right.

If it weren't for the lingering hope that it might be possible to do things the easy way instead of the hard way, what possible claim could the Democratic Party have on any of us?

[H2O Man]

5. That depends on how

one defines the democratic party and themselves. I think that much of Martin's message was that it is important to view things in a manner that is different than the definitions your opposition lays out. I believe that Martin would tell us that we err if we assume that the democratic party's power is in the hands of Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden, and Joe Liberman. The real power of the democratic party is found at the grass-roots level, and in fact the potential for a movement lies there, today. Martin attempted to wake people up to an of awareness of their humanity to empowered them. When we look to the direction of Martin-consciousness, the democratic party's grass roots is indeed a movement.

[PATRICK]

6. In other words as fallible

as the sub-leaders of King's movement, a natural institutional and human situation. The "party" sided with King for pragmatic and idealistic reasons King understood as very apart and corrupted from his own. The image of the past party as some communal Messiah entity might bear a LOT of close scrutiny, but messiahs fall, followers betray, corruption is as simple as product devaluation once the wheels hit the road.

People build the party. Messiahs build movements. They can top the party with jerks, they can shoot messiahs, but you KNOW the work, the goodness continues if the people believe and act. And today there is hope it does not have to be an eternal dualistic dynamic best confronted by cynicism and tainted pragmatism.

One way or another, human history as it has been conducted over the past ten millennia (not such a long time really) is ENDING this millennium. This century is the critical one and PNAC jurassic park dolts try to soak it in suicidal blood. None of us are perfect- even our heroes. Keep the men of good will pointed
in the right direction- together and we will make to the mountaintop.

[H2O Man]

7. How long?

"I know you are asking today, 'How long will it take?' I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again.

"How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.

"How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.

"How long? Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice."

-- This speech has been compared to "Jonah in the belly of the whale." King was addressing the crowd that had completed the march to Selma, which had included the brutal and bloody confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

8. King had real vision

and he was able to put pressure on politicians. He was inspired. No one like him at present.

""Throughout the summer of 1966, King led other marches into white neighborhoods demanding that housing be opened up to blacks. To defuse tensions in the city, Mayor Daley called a "summit meeting" with Rev. King on Friday, August 26, 1966 at the Palmer House in Chicago. """

9. Chicago Freedom Movement

I just found this on Chicago Freedom Movement, they are doing events in 2006. Pretty interesting.


http://www.cfm40.org/

""In 1966, the Chicago civil rights movement, called the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, was joined with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in a direct challenge to racial segregation led by Martin Luther King and Al Raby. Rallies, marches, demonstrations, on the pattern of the Southern civil rights movement, captured the attention of the whole city and the nation. This joint initiative by the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference became known as the Chicago Freedom Movement.

Veterans of the Chicago Freedom Movement, current civil rights activists, and historians are planning a conference and a variety of related events in 2006 to challenge continuing discrimination by race and ethnicity, to correct and expand the historical record and assess this experience of non-violent direct action.""

[Me.]

10. Eloquent Post

So much of today there. Two points struck me; "He said they had forgotten the simple truths of witness" and "every thing's not going to be all right!' he cried. 'If things keep going the way they're going now, it's not SCLC but the whole country that's in trouble". The troubles we face today will not end with Rove being indicted or B*** being impeached. We are too infested for that. It is going to take the opening of the eyes and hearts of the people of this country to truth and what is right. They've been accepting the mingy mien of lies and been calling it the truth because of doubt, overthinking and ambition for power.

[Me.]

11. Hope

"because truth pressed to earth will rise again."

"How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.

"How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.

"How long? Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice."

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. Thank you for this. It's perfect for MLK Day and for the crisis times we

now pass through. This is a gate of fire.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

K & R

[Gregorian]

13. The only way out of this prison...

The new president of Chile- a political prisoner.
Nelson Mandela- a prisoner.

We are prisoners. We're captives of this reality we find ourselves in. And there is only one choice. Really there are two, but one of them doesn't count.

The Democratic party is not Lieberman. It's not Kerry. If we don't like where it's going, the strongest alternative is to fix it. At least in the short term. We are a two party system. I think that strikes at the heart of the dilemma.


Thanks for the post. We are only human. It's ok to err. Sometimes we recover by a hair.

[Me.]

14. KICK

[im10ashus]

15. Personal ambition trumps a good conscience in many people.

It's pervasive in what we laughingly call the "business world" and money will make fools of men.

Men are equal; it is not birth but virtue that makes the difference.

-Voltaire-