"It is good to know that there still remains a creative minority who would rather lose in a cause that will ultimately win than to win in a cause that will ultimately lose."~written by Martin Luther King, Jr., to Charles Sherrod, Diane Nash and the others who went to jail on this day in 1961 for requesting service at a lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The ten college students refused to post bail and demanded jail time rather than paying fines, refusing to acknowledge any legitimacy of the laws under which they were arrested.
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Funny that isn't one of the quotes he's remembered for. I think a lot of what people understand (or construct) as the effective political, is actually just a series of very calculated decisions based on what is popular enough in the consciousness of the collective to garner popular, short term, surface support that does very little to ameliorate what actually ails us as a society of people who think they want real change.
ReplyDeleteI'm more of a Malcolm X sort of fighter. But in truth...I think that if this was the quote he was remembered for, people would have a very different way of reading, understanding, pursuing what we remember of his dream.
Sad.
daughta: Sad indeed. I'm a Malcolm X person myself (was going to name my daughter Malcolm in the early eighties if she'd been a he). But recently I've been coming across stuff about and from MLK Jr that I find intriguing. I think this kind of thinking appears more and more often in his last year, which is probably why he became untenable to those with the Power-To-Define.
ReplyDeleteI would agree. So sad. I think people long for another Malcolm or a Martin. I think that Obama, though he may be attempting to capitalize off of what came before, has feet that are way too small, way too conservative, to fill either of their shoes. Goddess bless them both.
ReplyDeleteAnd the rest of us, as well.
ReplyDeleteHey changeseeker. Please hop over to All About Race for a minute to see what has become of 2 SNCC founders...so sad.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allaboutrace.com/2008/02/12/julian-bond-deals-the-race-card-for-clinton/
I hadn't heard about that until you told me, Carmen. I just went over and threw out my two cents. Thanks for the invite. I love hanging out with friends.
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