Comments on: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

By: The Mountaintop

The Mountaintop — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 01:41:15 +0000

Misguided Priorities

Josh Claybourn, to his shame, is once again copying-and-pasting his annual takedown of Martin Luther King, Jr, this time on his new joint blog, In the Agora. I generally respect Mr. Claybourn as one of the few conservative voices in the blog world who…

By: connexions

connexions — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 22:51:27 +0000

The Unforgiveable Sin?

Josh Claybourn was kind enough to drop me an email…

By: Joel Thomas

Joel Thomas — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 22:32:10 +0000

The plagiarism is noteworthy, but before I die, if I have accomplished 1% of what King did, then I should be greatly humbled.
In my book, any post referencing King’s plagiarism ought to spend 10 times the words on the highlights of his ministry.

By: JackLewis.net

JackLewis.net — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 21:00:45 +0000

MLK Day

Today we honor the memory of a man who lived and died to end segregation, by once again holding parades…

By: Pajama Hadin

Pajama Hadin — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 18:13:40 +0000

Dr. Martin Luther King

Brief and to the point:
I do not believe that Dr. King would approve much of the misery merchants many in Black Leadership have become, exploiting for political power and money rather than effectively helping the Black community by offering it real …

By: The Baron

The Baron — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 16:59:27 +0000

Henderson v. Sander, The Future of Affirmative Action

“…readers may be familiar with the story of Richard Sander, Professor of Law at UCLA. Recently (provoking a lot of criticism), he used empirical analysis to mount a broad criticism of affirmative action in American law schools.”
” Professor Willia…

By: La Shawn Barber's Corner

La Shawn Barber's Corner — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 16:54:34 +0000

Liberal Elites Defile King’s Dream

The following is a previously published column about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the liberal elites who taint his idea of character over color. I’ve heard the stories and rumors about King’s infidelities (and other things), but this post is about th…

By: Dr.MR

Dr.MR — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:24:54 +0000

“King pushed racism to the front burner of America’s attention and refused to let it or himself be pushed back. Along with other heroes like Rosa Parks and Medgar Evers, he took the first important steps in making it OK to be dark-skinned. Covert, institutionalized, and insidious segregation and discrimination didn’t end because of him, but it was revealed as our country’s dirty laundry. Now we can talk about it; before him, we didn’t so much . . .
“(I am somewhat saddened, too, by what seems to be an undoing of Dr. King’s work. The dark-skinned community seems to be drifting back into a segregated mentality once again, but with a difference. This time they’re doing it by labeling themselves as anything other than American or Christian or Muslim or whatever other non-observable appellation they might choose to set themselves apart from others. In so doing, I fear, they are duplicating and subtly justifying the segregationist mentality that light-skinned people foisted upon them for centuries. It is an ironic tragedy.)”

By: Caleb

Caleb — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:18:55 +0000

I just think we must not to attribute the source of the message to him (if we’re interested in historical accuracy), only its delivery, both figuratively and literally.
I think we certainly should be interested in historical accuracy, but that’s a very different thing from historical memory. All memorials necessarily bracket certain questions of historical accuracy, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing: the purpose of a day of remembrance is very different from the purpose of an historical monograph.
I like the way you put your last line — that what we attribute to MLK is not just his delivery of a message, his eloquence, but the fact that he literally delivered on that message in his life. The number of people who have said original things is vastly greater than the number of people who have lived original lives. That’s why we have days to remember the latter.

By: Joshua Claybourn

Joshua Claybourn — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 13:16:11 +0000

But why do a man’s imperfections make him automatically less heroic, though, or less worthy of honor?
They don’t make him less heroic. You’re right to point out it’s his courage that largely make him memorable, and I certainly agree. I just think we must not to attribute the source of the message to him (if we’re interested in historical accuracy), only its delivery, both figuratively and literally.
Incidentally, this also raises some interesting legal issues. The King family has long held copyrights to much of King’s work that was plagarized, raising questions about whether they can justly and legally continue to collect royalties and restrict its use.