From: sstover@sumax.seattleu.edu (   Wilde Dame)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Re: MLK revisited / Sheryl
Date: 22 Jan 1993 14:17:24 -0800
Organization: Seattle University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sumax.seattleu.edu


My goodness, I know it's bad form to follow up one's own postings, but I
have received a couple replies which suggest that maybe it's necessary for
me to lay out some mental background here...

Martin Luther King spent the last three years of his life (1965-1968)
discussing, in large part, issues of class (not just race) and the
difficulty he had with the US spending tax money on the war in Vietnam. 
King *did* protest the war in Vietnam, rather vehemently, but with the
exception of a few cities (as I've been told) like Washington D.C., no one
publicizes this fact.  To me, it's a peculiar (but convenient) omission
from the myth of the Patriotic Black Man which the largely white
establishment has built up out of King.

My problem/bitterness does not lie with King's policies, but rather with
these omissions.  Blacks and whites alike who were alive during the last
years of King's life are doubtless more aware than the general public of
King's philosophy in its entirety, but it is troubling and puzzling to me
that his last years, which can be seen as the culmination of his thoughts
and experiences, are pre-empted in modern-day presentations of him by his
earlier policies and statements.  The point is not that he later revoked
these, but that they led to very different conclusions--for example, the
conclusion that *class*, and not race, is the ultimate cause of
stratification in American society.  I am still trying to understand why
this omission occurs; one sociologist (Elliot) suggests that it is because
the white establishment is using King as a role model for how they want
Blacks to respond in society to change and diversity, and the omission is
very intentional.

That in mind, one last time for commentary/criticism/flames/thoughts.


How To Remember
===================


The dream is simple; aptly so--
tired hands and hearts deserve a simple task
at the end of the proverbial day.
The inner peace, insulated
from circumstances ought to be enough
to fuel the chemical reaction--
black into Black, ambition into pride.
Having learned the thesis, having read
the first two volumes
it's so much to ask to have to study
what it all adds up to.  We have only
done you a favor; this is our synopsis.

(Irony, they say
is a sign of bitterness.)

The patriotic Black man
who survived the AP reports
of his own death
would of course never question
a war in Vietnam.  The patriotic Black man
reading that newspaper
has his own role to fulfill, his own
identity to cultivate, his own
taxes to pay (small tithe
for the climb from the ghetto
to the tenement) and because we trust
in God, we trust
the God-fearing senators to put our money
where our mouth is
and the patriotic Black man never questions
the war in Vietnam

if he wants to be remembered 
heart, bone, and sinew.



-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       Sheryl Stover    |    "The good ended happily, and the
  & Hemingway & Clio    |    bad unhappily.  That is what fiction means."
sstover@seattleu.edu    |    -Oscar Wilde, _The Importance of Being Earnest_