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Martin Luther King Day

by on Jan. 18, 2010, under Arts, Life, Politics

Martin Luther KingToday is the annual holiday (and MLK March and Celebration at Reid Park) in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.– who eloquently spoke on August 28, 1963 when he marched on Washington, D.C. Click here for the full text of his “I Have a Dream” speech.

This is one of the most famous quotes from that historic speech: “I have a dream that my four little 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 hope that now in this 21st century (and nearly 42 years since King was assassinated) that we are living in a nation where a person is not judged by their skin color, but by their deeds and actions and character.

As an Asian Pacific Islander who has been judged negatively by my skin color (and facial features) I can attest that this is not a pleasant experience. But I have hope for race relations in America, especially with our “color-blind” young people like my son and his friends. I have that dream that what King said in 1963 has come true today.

Enjoy today’s MLK festivities at Reid Park, 10 to 5 p.m. Most of the celebration is at the DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center near the NE corner of S. Country Club and E. 22nd St.

Also today, free showing at the Loft Theater (3233 E. Speedway) of the MLK Day Film Projet (pro-zhay) film competition based on the concept of “Beloved Community” as taught by Dr. KIng Jr. Winning submissions will premier at 5:30 p.m. with awards in various categories. Topics for the original short films (5 minutes or less) include “nonviolence, service, grassroots, education, justice, reconciliation, love and redemption.”

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.



  • http://www.usspost.com UssPost

    Read more Full News ::: http://usspost.com/mlk-quotes-4216/

  • Ben

    Thanks very much for recognizing what this great man of God has done.  So many pe0ple have no idea of his compassionate contributions to the world. Your choice to keep us informed is a blessing to this community.

    Love & Peace

    • Ado

      Ben, You should study your “great man of God” in more depth. That there is a national holiday for this plagiarist and adulterer is almost laughable, and the material would make a great skit on Saturday Night Live, were the issues not so factual and historical.

      We read in Michael Hoffman’s “Holiday for a Cheater“:

      The first public sermon that King ever gave, in 1947 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, was plagiarized from a homily by Protestant clergyman Harry Emerson Fosdick entitled “Life is What You Make It,” according to the testimony of King’s best friend of that time, Reverend Larry H. Williams.

      The first book that King wrote, “Stride Toward Freedom, – -was plagiarized from numerous sources, all unattributed, according to documentation recently assembled by sympathetic King scholars Keith D. Miller, Ira G. Zepp, Jr., and David J. Garrow.

      And no less an authoritative source than the four senior editors of “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.- – (an official publication of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., whose staff includes King’s widow Coretta), stated of King’s writings at both Boston University and Crozer Theological Seminary: “Judged retroactively by the standards of academic scholarship, [his writings] are tragically flawed by numerous instances of plagiarism…. Appropriated passages are particularly evident in his writings in his major field of graduate study, systematic theology.”

      King’s essay, “The Place of Reason and Experience in Finding God,” written at Crozer, pirated passages from the work of theologian Edgar S. Brightman, author of “The Finding of God.”

      Another of King’s theses, “Contemporary Continental Theology,” written shortly after he entered Boston University, was largely stolen from a book by Walter Marshall Horton.

      King’s doctoral dissertation, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Harry Nelson Wieman,” for which he was awarded a PhD in theology, contains more than fifty complete sentences plagiarized from the PhD dissertation of Dr. Jack Boozer, “The Place of Reason in Paul Tillich’s Concept of God.”

      According to “The Martin Luther King Papers“, in King’s dissertation “only 49 per cent of sentences in the section on Tillich contain five or more words that were King’s own….“!

      In “The Journal of American History“, June 1991, page 87, David J. Garrow, a leftist academic who is sympathetic to King, says that King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, who also served as his secretary, was an accomplice in his repeated cheating. (“King’s Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity and Transformation,” The Journal of American History, June 1991, p. 87)

      Reading Garrow’s article, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that King cheated because he had chosen for himself a political role in which a PhD would be useful, and, lacking the intellectual ability to obtain the title fairly, went after it by any means necessary. Why, then, one might ask, did the professors at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University grant him passing grades and a PhD? Garrow states on page 89: “King’s academic compositions, especially at Boston University, were almost without exception little more than summary descriptions… and comparisons of other’s writings. Nonetheless, the papers almost always received desirable letter grades, strongly suggesting that King’s professors did not expect more….” The editors of “The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers” state that “…the failure of King’s teachers to notice his pattern of textual appropriation is somewhat remarkable….

      But researcher Michael Hoffman tells us “…actually the malfeasance of the professors is not at all remarkable. King was politically correct, he was Black, and he had ambitions. The leftist [professors were] happy to award a doctorate to such a candidate no matter how much fraud was involved. Nor is it any wonder that it has taken forty years for the truth about King’s record of nearly constant intellectual piracy to be made public.”

      Supposed scholars, who in reality shared King’s vision of a racially mixed and Marxist America, purposely covered up his cheating for decades. The cover-up still continues. From the “New York Times” of October 11, 1991, page 15, we learn that on October 10th of that year, a committee of researchers at Boston University admitted that, “There is no question but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation.” However, despite its finding, the committee said that “No thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree,” an action the panel said “would serve no purpose.”

      No purpose, indeed! Justice demands that, in light of his willful fraud as a student, the “reverend” and the “doctor” should be removed from King’s name.

      The above material can be found at this(and many other websites). 

      http://www.martinlutherking.org/thebeast.html

      • tiponeill

        Justice demands that,
        Don’t be silly Ado – right wingers should be happy that MLK has been elevated to be the symbol for the civil rights movement. No one cares about his college papers, nor should they – he wasn’t an academic, he was a political leader.
        There are plenty of others that deserve credit – Malcolm X comes to mind – but by using MLK everyone perpetuates the myth that America honors human rights and everything can be achieved legally through the legal system, and resistance is unnecessary.

        • Ado

          Malcom X,  I can readily agree withBut King?  Sorry, no.  I can’t write off his consorting with prostitutes with  money that was donated for civil rights any more than I can Jesse’ Jackson, or any other so called “man of god” being hypocritical in their personal life, and then wanting the world to believe they are not also hypocrites in their public lives as well.

          • tiponeill

            “Hypocritical” would be publicly espousing one thing while privately doing the opposite – like Vitter or Larry Craig or Ted Haggard or….
            MLK wasn’t a campaigner against sex, he was a campaigner for civil rights – his private life did not make him a hypocrite, nor did JFKs or many many other political leaders.
            Personally I favor consorting with prostitutes as a reasonable alternative to many of our societies ills.

        • leftfield

          I agree, Tip, about MLK’s deification.  A good campaigner, and not to take away from his efforts and the good they did, but he was also just the kind of “good negro” the system would choose to absorb and hold up as an example. 

    • Ado

      Ben, You should study your “great man of God” in more depth. That there is a national holiday for this plagiarist and adulterer is almost laughable, and the material would make a great skit on Saturday Night Live, were the issues not so factual and historical. 

      We read in Michael Hoffman’s “Holiday for a Cheater“:

      The first public sermon that King ever gave, in 1947 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, was plagiarized from a homily by Protestant clergyman Harry Emerson Fosdick entitled “Life is What You Make It,” according to the testimony of King’s best friend of that time, Reverend Larry H. Williams.

      The first book that King wrote, “Stride Toward Freedom, – -was plagiarized from numerous sources, all unattributed, according to documentation recently assembled by sympathetic King scholars Keith D. Miller, Ira G. Zepp, Jr., and David J. Garrow.

      And no less an authoritative source than the four senior editors of “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.- – (an official publication of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., whose staff includes King’s widow Coretta), stated of King’s writings at both Boston University and Crozer Theological Seminary: “Judged retroactively by the standards of academic scholarship, [his writings] are tragically flawed by numerous instances of plagiarism…. Appropriated passages are particularly evident in his writings in his major field of graduate study, systematic theology.”

      King’s essay, “The Place of Reason and Experience in Finding God,” written at Crozer, pirated passages from the work of theologian Edgar S. Brightman, author of “The Finding of God.”

      Another of King’s theses, “Contemporary Continental Theology,” written shortly after he entered Boston University, was largely stolen from a book by Walter Marshall Horton.

      King’s doctoral dissertation, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Harry Nelson Wieman,” for which he was awarded a PhD in theology, contains more than fifty complete sentences plagiarized from the PhD dissertation of Dr. Jack Boozer, “The Place of Reason in Paul Tillich’s Concept of God.”

      According to “The Martin Luther King Papers“, in King’s dissertation “only 49 per cent of sentences in the section on Tillich contain five or more words that were King’s own….“!

      In “The Journal of American History“, June 1991, page 87, David J. Garrow, a leftist academic who is sympathetic to King, says that King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, who also served as his secretary, was an accomplice in his repeated cheating. (“King’s Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity and Transformation,” The Journal of American History, June 1991, p. 87)

      Reading Garrow’s article, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that King cheated because he had chosen for himself a political role in which a PhD would be useful, and, lacking the intellectual ability to obtain the title fairly, went after it by any means necessary. Why, then, one might ask, did the professors at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University grant him passing grades and a PhD? Garrow states on page 89: “King’s academic compositions, especially at Boston University, were almost without exception little more than summary descriptions… and comparisons of other’s writings. Nonetheless, the papers almost always received desirable letter grades, strongly suggesting that King’s professors did not expect more….” The editors of “The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers” state that “…the failure of King’s teachers to notice his pattern of textual appropriation is somewhat remarkable….

      But researcher Michael Hoffman tells us “…actually the malfeasance of the professors is not at all remarkable. King was politically correct, he was Black, and he had ambitions. The leftist [professors were] happy to award a doctorate to such a candidate no matter how much fraud was involved. Nor is it any wonder that it has taken forty years for the truth about King’s record of nearly constant intellectual piracy to be made public.”

      Supposed scholars, who in reality shared King’s vision of a racially mixed and Marxist America, purposely covered up his cheating for decades. The cover-up still continues. From the “New York Times” of October 11, 1991, page 15, we learn that on October 10th of that year, a committee of researchers at Boston University admitted that, “There is no question but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation.” However, despite its finding, the committee said that “No thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree,” an action the panel said “would serve no purpose.”

      No purpose, indeed! Justice demands that, in light of his willful fraud as a student, the “reverend” and the “doctor” should be removed from King’s name.

      The above material can be found at this(and many other websites). 

      http://www.martinlutherking.org/thebeast.html

  • Carolyn Classen

    Thanks Ben.  Hundreds of Tucsonans just marched from the U of A campus to Reid Park singing “We shall overcome”.  The celebration of this great man and that “his dream will live on” continues now at DeMeester performance center at Reid Park.

  • Carolyn Classen

    The MLK Film Projet competition was amazing in the community building aspect, with short films (mostly documentaries) made by high school students covering the following topics:  Skrappy’s youth center, de Anza Drive In, Humane Borders water stations, vintage clothing, Senior refugees, a comedic Boom Box kid, GABA bike swap meet, Sex Ed, music, skateboarding, self-esteem, and most tragically, an Iraqi war vet and PTSD.  It was only the 2nd year of this competition, and the sponsor Volunteer Center of  Southern Arizona hopes to do this film project again next year.  It was truly impressive to see such thoughtful, challenging films by young teenagers.

  • http://www.debipearl.com/pages/listen-to-my-dream Listen To My Dream

    Every once in a while, down through the pages of time, the life and works of one man forever changes the lives of millions of people. Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a man.

    • mорское

      deifying mlk does such an injustice to the thousands of people who actually did the real work, with some of them dying as well.

      civil rights was not the work of mlk ……. he was just the point man.

      but you keep on worshipping him.
      be careful though, the dirt will be hard to get out off your knees.

  • Ben

    Dear Ado,
    If we are looking for humans to be perfect as they free millions; that probably will not happen. King David made many, many mistakes and even had a man murdered. However, God (the Master of the Universe) tells us that David is a man after His own heart. None of us are above sin…he who is without guilt, let him first cast a stone.

    I think God knew that humans can do great things, but still have problems with sin. Maybe you have never committed a sin in your life. If so, please oh please run for office on the platform or your perfection and love for all people.al- pennies

    • mорское

      “If we are looking for humans to be perfect as they free millions ….”

      wow, mlk actually freed millions. gee what a guy, huh?

      “King David made many, many mistakes and even had a man murdered. …. ”

      yes, and unlike mlk, David repented and as forgiveness for his sins.

  • Ado

    Ben,  the devil can also quote scripture I am told.  The simple fact remains, a liar and a cheat has been elevated to a  symbol of the civil rights struggle for many people.  I find that amusing and a definite demonstration of their overall ignorance as a group.  Perhaps the movement was so bankrupt of genuine good and credible leaders that the people had to grab at whichever slick talking orator took the stage back then.  No one examining King’s credentials or personal background would have seriously considered him today, but back then the vetting process isn’t what it is today either.  In any case,  MLK was never a true “man of God” by any standard or measurement.  A man of god is not a liar(plagiarizer),  or adulterer as far as most folks are concerned.  I don’t know about you, Ben, but perhaps feel you  are in your element around  this kind of person.?

     

    • leftfield

      In the interest of full disclosure, it should be pointed out that my good friend Ado is a fervent supporter of the existing power structure in Amerika and also a fervent supporter of white privilege.

      • Ado

        Untrue, but oh so typical of Lefty and Communist advocates in general, if factual data eludes you, create some to support your ideology and agenda.  But we all know that don’t we?  It’s like explaining the obvious one more time …

  • Ferraribubba

    Hey Tipster: So you favor consorting with prostitutes?  Man, You really make a bunch of Vice Squad cops that I know happy.
    Their mortages will be paid this month and there’ll be food on the table for all those hungry kids.
    If I’m not mistaken, prostitution is still against the law in all 50 states . Well, 57 if your using our beloved POTUS Obama’s brand of math.
    The only exceptions are a couple of counties in Nevada where it’s legal.
    BTW, did you know that we, the taxpayers owned the Mustang Ranch after the IRS and FedGovCo seized it?
    They finally closed it down for good less than a year later. Our Government couldn’t even sell whiskey and women and make a profit.
    Go figure. . .  Yer pal, Ferrari Bubba

    • leftfield

      Yes, only the kind of vice the power structure can profit from themselves will be allowed here.  Numbers game – bad;  lotto – good.  Any violations and they send the goons out after you.

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