MVU, MLK, MC

Because I can mix topics as I like.

And I rather like this photo from the :: Sponsor Mixer Party Oct 4, 2003 :: Miss Vietnam USA :::. They've redone the Miss Vietnam USA web site, by the way, and now you can order not only the Ao Dai calendar, but also bikini and evening gown. . .

Ok, I'll stop.

As we wonder today what happened to the clear and easy-to-defend agenda of the civil rights years, those forgotten years between Dr. King's landmark speech and his death show us how difficult it was even for the great dreamer himself to turn dreams into reality.

"We all have a task, and let us do it with a sense of divine dissatisfaction," Dr. King said in one of his final speeches. "Let us be divinely dissatisfied as long as we have a wealth of creeds and poverty of deeds." That's his legacy. We may never achieve a perfect world, he told us, but we must never stop trying.

That's from King's 'forgotten years' worth remembering, by Clarence Page, which I noticed over at Cursor. Which I really should add to the links list, or bookmark, or something. Any road up, the column refers readers to Citizen King, airing on Monday, January 19th on your local PBS station as part of American Experience. Check your local listings.

Cursor also links -- as I've done in the past, I think -- The Martin Luther King You Don't See On TV by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon:

You haven't heard the "Beyond Vietnam" speech on network news retrospectives, but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 -- and loudly denounced it. Time magazine called it "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi." The Washington Post patronized that "King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

Link added, natch.

Here, I got a little sample:

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I'm not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let us love one another (Yes), for love is God. (Yes) And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. . . . If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

And I'll have to start using "patronizing" instead of "condescending" to describe the attitude I keep running into from well-meaning white folk. Couldn't hurt, might help.

On the plus side for my not-dead-yet faith in humanity, Margaret Cho announces I Love You. All Y'all.

I am enjoying the vitriol and the rage coming out from the haters and the crazy motherfuckers out there. It is indeed a crusade, for they falsely believe that God is on their side, but He is just embarrassed. God is awesome, and all are welcome in the House of the Lord. He got the crunk, He got the chronic, He got the best Djs. Fuckin A. He is God and shit, yo.

We have not been impressed by the insults. They haven't been mean enough, because they don't make sense. They are all about how I don't belong in this country, how I am ugly and fat, how my eyes and pussy is slanted, how all us gays and lesbians gonna burn in hell. It is kind of repetitive. Boring. I see that being crucified in the eyes of the right wing don't mean shit. It don't hurt at all. No thorn in my side, just boring in my side. It is funny. What I love is that the people that have love for me are showing it right now. I feel bathed in love, like Paula Abdul in that video where she was in a tropical waterfall. Love is coming down on my little life like manna from heaven, and God is telling me, "See? You tha bomb gurl!" SO many mails saying "thank you" and "bless you" and "I love you" and "You are Beautiful" and "you are me".. People saying "thank you for letting me be myself again," for representing, for being me, telling my story, being my voice, because mine ain't loud enough. That is what I hear. I can't hear the hate anymore, because the love has drowned it out. Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate. Thank you. I need you. I love you. All y'all.

Mad love from me to aldahlia and Sam -- they post the idjits' addresses, so I don't have to.

Plus, aldahlia also writes:

It is indeed possible to Go Black, then Go Back, in case you were wondering.

Which had me in stitches earlier this morning. I could not explain why. It just did. And still do.