Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Show all posts

Monday, January 18, 2016

AFTER KING & SEAN PENN'S FAILURE

MLK ANGER
     Anger.  The ML King Memorial speakers provoked an anger.  I was angry that a university cross culture staffer was also angry enough to rail against cultural bias.
     Angry that an African American woman student confronted the kind of racism mostly borne of ignorance. Micro aggression she called it, white boys would date her, but only in private, never in public. Insidious racism in questions about how often black students wash their hair, or did she have any thug buddies?
     Angry that a pastor who grew up near Selma and who worked in Birmingham said even all these years later "we still have work to do."
     Angry that indeed the battle is far from over. Angry that prejudice and racial intolerance are still enemies of the Republic.  Too many battles, too much suffering, too much residual poison, too much anger for too long. All of this should have been fixed decades ago.
     I wondered as speakers pointed to old enemies, that should have been vanquished, if Dr. King would not now be pointing to the enemies of economic disparity, sexual and gender discrimination as well as the kind of racism seen in police murders of black citizens, or voter registration entanglements or a Mitch McConnell saying on day one of the Obama administration his job was to prevent the president's re-election.
      Hats off to Pacifica Radio Archives for finding a "lost" Martin Luther King speech.You can link here to learn about and listen to a 1964 speech in London, just days before he received the Nobel Prize.
       By April 1967 Dr. King had grown angry. If you are interested you can hear the address delivered at historic Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967, a year before he was murdered. The speech was called Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence. It is considered the most controversial speech of his life.

SEAN PENN'S FAILURE
   Sean Penn told CBS's Charlie Rose he considered his interview with the Mexican drug kingpin a failure, because it failed to foster a wider conversation about America's own failure, the long and tired War on Drugs, being waged since the Nixon administration.
    Some have attacked Penn for doing the interview, faulting him for his lack of journalistic perspective. Penn challenges what he says is a failure in American journalism. 
     What Penn offered up in Rolling Stone was a personal piece, his experience with and his take on the drug Lord.  It was not meant to be a thorough and full examination of the Mexican cartel, its leader and his violence. It was however the first public comment from a twice escaped international fugitive in hiding. That he got him to speak, even under conditions is better than anyone else has done. Did his interview offer great illumination? Probably not, but it offered more than we knew previously. 
       It is not the kind of journalism being celebrated in the Academy Award nominated Spotlight, but it was a snapshot of a public enemy while on the run. Penn may have wished for more.  Envious journalists and embarrassed law enforcement may take their shots. Still on balance, Penn risked his own well being, displayed a curiosity and produced an honest account that on balance brought up the information level on a legitimate story. No great success perhaps, no Pulitzer winner, but neither was it a failure. At the very least Penn deserves credit for giving it a shot.

    See you down the trail.


Monday, November 25, 2013

A PAINFUL TRUTH-A MODERN PROPHET...ON THE GRATITUDE TRAIL

OF THE REASONS WE COUNT
ADJUDICATING FILM MAKING
     Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE is an example of brilliant and ethical film making. It could be one of the most important films made.  Why?  Because it immerses the viewer in a vivid reality that must be embraced so the lessons are forever remembered and never repeated.
    This puts the hateful, ignorant, violent and destructive nature of American slavery out there with a force that crushes.  Yet the powerful dignity of humanity survives, carried in the heart of a man who is done so many wrongs and injustices you wish you could put your hands on the slavers, plantation owners and other allies of that horrible part of our history. 
    The acting is superb and the film making so extraordinary that you become an emotional captive of that era. You may never encounter cinema villains that provoke such dark rage in your heart. This film gathers you into a time and culture that enslaves your sense of hope and leaves you desperate as to how any human, let alone American citizens, could think, act and behave in such vile, brutal and evil ways, even while spouting Christianity. 
     We've all "studied" slavery, but we've never seen a window into that horrible human enterprise like this. Every performance was masterful and contributed to the stark approximation of truth, as history. Chiwetel Ejiofor who portrays the real man, Solomon Northrop must be a candidate for the Oscar.  His performance of the true life journey, while fighting desperately to retain dignity is something you'll never forget, nor are you likely ever to put away the frank retelling of a time in our past that should haunt us forever. 
                                  American Legacy
                        THE MODERN PROPHET
    Even now, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remains a man of controversy. I revere his devotion to equality and his sacrificial leadership. To some, his memorial is controversial, but in my judgement it is appropriate, powerful and inspirational.

  Your approach to what appears to be a mountain leads you past this inscription from which Dr. King appears to emerge as you walk around it.

      At the time of his leadership I thought he was courageous and eloquent. Now his vision and sense of justice stand to challenge contemporary struggles.




      Despite the gains Dr. King helped to win, bigotry still
lurks and faith is perverted to target others who are "different."
      If I could bend cosmic reality or write an eternal script or even requisition a Divine justice, I'd have those slavers, plantation owners, overseers, racists, Klansmen, bigots, bullies, and their kind, through all time, sentenced to an eternity of undoing every bull whip strike, beating, lynching, rape, torment, hateful word, denial of liberty, separation of family, discriminatory law, humiliation, enslavement, fire hosing, bus and church bombing, demonstrator beating, and every vile and denigrating word spoken. Forever, they would be bound to such undoing. 
      The ages must be grateful for those who endured and who could still forgive. We can overcome. We should remember.
     See you down the trail.