The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by dido:

re: Terry @40

and Bruce (Stm) @41: Thank you both for those affirmations that I was
being clearer than I could have hoped for. I dunno how that even got
drug in.

The point I was trying to make is that MLK was always controversial,
and not always in the way that "we" (meaning "me") would like.

I'm grateful for that, but is he then becoming "invisible" again?

I was always taught to see him as a rabble-rouser and a malcontent
-- and that this was a good thing. Maybe (probably?) the kids today are
being taught him as the status quo (and therefore boring)?

Bruce (StM) @ 36: That's exactly what I was trying to get at--I knew
I was flubbing it even as I was typing it, but I wasn't sure how to
make it better.

I don't really like snap "psychological" judgments; I don't really
like hierarchies of blame or suffering. I do know for a fact that my
father (one individual) was irreparably damaged by his (own personal)
time in Viet Nam and I wanted to share (by report) his (personal) take
on the experience--*because* his trauma still survives into the later
generations. Thank you for the opportunity for clarification.

I hope I didn't give the impression that I was assigning experiences.

It did seem like MLK's opposition to the Viet Nam War was being
coopted by the press; if we're here to honor his memory and legacy....

I once had a Greek student who'd been a former Civil Rights worker,
and then a Black Panther and finally a Nation of Islam cleric/elder
(not sure of the precise term). While I was teaching, because I taught
through the same University MLK went to, there was an extra big fuss in
the local papers about the plagiarism scandal. In my mind this happened
only a few months after King's alleged extramarital affairs started
being reported (I doubt that's accurate.)

My student (who by then was an old man-- he must have been in his
late 40's in 1968)asked me in an extremely belligerent way what I
thought about the recent reports that King had been a "cheater."

And I took a big huge breath and thought about being a young white
girl in a predominantly older-minority classroom and sucked it up and
told the truth.

I think the news that MLK was not a "Plaster Saint" might have
devastated me at the time, if--like my former student-- I had worked
and suffered and demanded of the impossible of myself. I think that if
I had been in Selma or Memphis I might have felt betrayed. I don't know
that; I just think I might have been. As it is, I reap the benefits of
his incredible courage, eloquent genius and final sacrifice.

I still feel the same way. Because I have distance I'm happy to read
about King's life and legacy with all it's/his flaws. It helps me to
realize that I don't need to be a plaster saint either. That inspires
me to do what I can.

It saddens me that anyone could use the trope "well, he was only human" to devalue King's legacy.

Bruce Cohen @ 27: My (estranged) father was a door-gunner in Viet
Nam. I've never had the nerve to ask him about his experiences because
(so I've heard) what he always told my mother was, "If you can talk
about it you weren't there." [Obvious observation: this is only one
person's experience told at third hand--I still think it's
enlightening. In fact, I thought about that a lot as I was reading "The
Things They Carried".]

Comment statistics for dido on the Making Light blog

Total: 3 comments. View all these comments on a single page.