Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2025 -- January 20, 2025

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

Happy Birthday, Doctor King 2024 -- January 15, 2024

catholics-united.org

"Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way." 

Happy Birthday, Doctor King, 2023 -- January 16, 2023

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Happy Birthday, Doctor King 2022 -- January 17, 2022

famousfix.com

"At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love."

Happy Birthday, Doctor King, 2021 -- January 18, 2021

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

John Lewis, RIP -- July 18, 2020

I was sad to learn that Representative John Lewis, an American hero, has died. He worked with Doctor King and tried to keep the quest for civil rights alive in a generally hateful Congress. 

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2020 -- January 20, 2020

"When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Birthday, President Lincoln -- February 12, 2019

Life, 06-September-1963

Today is Abraham Lincoln's 210th birthday. My favorite president.

When I despair about the damage being done by our current so-called president, I think of the problems that Lincoln and our country faced and dealt with.  

The organizers of the 28-August-1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, A Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr would soon deliver his speech, "I Have a Dream."

http://cablecarguy.blogspot.com/2013/08/i-have-dream-50-august-28-2013.html

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2019 -- January 21, 2019

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

Dorothy Parker 125 -- August 22, 2018

Author and deadly wit Dorothy Parker was born 125 years ago today, on 22-August-1893.  She was an original member of the New Yorker staff.  She scripted many movies, including Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur.  Parker was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.  When she died, she left everything to Martin Luther King, Jr.  When he died, it went to the NAACP.

www.listal.com

www.facebook.com/DorothyParkerQuotes

Dr King 50 Years -- April 4, 2018

catholics-united.org

50 years ago today, on 04-April-1968 Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was murdered in Memphis.

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2018 -- January 15, 2018

www.facebook.com/MartinLutherKingJr/

We need more extremists like Jesus and Dr King.

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2017 -- January 16, 2017

www.listal.com

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” —
 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

We should keep this in mind as Congress marches boldly forward to repeal the Affordable Care Act, gut Medicare and Medicaid and destroy CHIP. 

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2016 -- January 18, 2016

From the Other 98 (http://other98.com/). 

Happy Birthday, Dr King, 2015 -- January 19, 2015

From the Other 98 (http://other98.com/). 

Happy Birthday, Dr King #7 -- January 15, 2014

From Catholics United (http://www.catholics-united.org/). 

I Have a Dream 50 -- August 28, 2013

Fifty years ago today, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr stood before the Lincoln Memorial and gave one of the greatest speeches in American culture.  

"I Have a Dream..."

(Copyright 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King

At the "March on Washington"

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 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 captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still 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 languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have 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 would be guaranteed the inalienable 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 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. So we have 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 rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. 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. 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. 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 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 their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

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

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 cells. Some of you have come from areas where your 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 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, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, 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 a table of brotherhood.

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

I have a dream that my four 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 the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 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.

 This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. 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.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a 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. 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 snowcapped 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, when we allow freedom to 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!"

Tough Week -- April 19, 2013

Two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured almost 200.  Last night the two accused bombers killed one policeman and seriously wounded another.  One suspect died yesterday and his brother was captured alive today. 

A fertilizer plant blew up in West, Texas.  We won't know for a while how many people, including volunteer firefighters, are dead.  Thanks to the lack of zoning laws in Texas, there was a nursing home within a few hundred feet of the plant.  There were also homes and schools nearby.  If Texas allowed unions, perhaps the plant would have been safer. 

There was a massive earthquake in China.  Recent reports say at least 100 dead. 

Corrupt Senators filibustered a plan to require more background checks for gun purchasers.  The NRA and the firearms industries are hurting America. 

The image is a view of a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr that was projected on the Brooklyn Academy of Music to show support for Boston after the bombing. 

Tonight we had a nice dinner at the Moose Lodge. 

Happy Birthday, Doctor King #6 -- January 21, 2013

From Catholics United (http://www.catholics-united.org/). 

Happy Birthday, Doctor King #5 -- January 16, 2012

From The Other 98% (http://other98.com/).