The lesson is directly applicable today, but Americans, Black and white, find it difficult to recognize the characters. Obama is Lyndon Johnson. National revitalization, including redress of historical African American grievances, is impossible unless military expenditures are dramatically reduced. But Obama is committed to putting 100,000 new pairs of Marine and Army "boots on the ground," an expanded war in Afghanistan/Pakistan, a beefed up AFRICOM, and a generally bigger U.S. military footprint on the planet. This, in the midst of global economic collapse.
Dr. King would find creative ways to confront President Obama's militarism, and to actively resist further diversion of public wealth to the bankers. Were he to survey the current political scene, King would be most impressed, not with the Obamas party plans for the night after his birthday, but with the way that a daughter of Georgia salvaged Black America's moral reputation at the beginning of Israel's assault on Gaza.
"Not all African Americans have morphed into warmongering clones of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice."
Cynthia McKinney's attempted voyage of solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza on the medical relief boat Dignity, rammed and almost sunk by Israeli warships, reminds the world that not all African Americans have morphed into warmongering clones of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Thanks to the presence of the former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate on the mission, millions of Arabs have been made aware of a different Black America, one that is not silent, like Barack Obama, in the face of a purposely inflicted human rights catastrophe.
Cynthia McKinney is Black America's moral emissary to the world. She exemplifies the Black America that consistently opposes U.S. military adventures abroad, a people that recognize organized racism when they see it, and therefore condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians - the Black America that Martin Luther King came from.
Some of us are still in our right minds. Hopefully, most of the others will recover, sooner rather than later.
Originally posted at the Black Agenda Report. BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com .
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