Today's best news was the news from Atlanta of the protesters standing up to Bush's nefarious plans to clothe himself in the King legacy. There have been a diary entry by paper tigress on the case early
paper tigress on the protest with lots of links to the news.
There's so much happening right now as we prepare to kick Bush out of the White House on Nov. 2. Pieces seem to be coming together, strategies planned, and a critical mass forming that will make this happen. With all the Dem infighting lately the folks in Atlanta helped me to remember that we all have our eyes on the prize and we WILL get there together.
As a reminder that even divided movements can achieve success when their cause is righteous, here's a link to King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
The letter was to fellow church leaders who were upset about the protests and focused on "negotiation" instead of active disobedience. King's philosophical influences -- from Gandhi to Thoreau to St. Augustine and Niebuhr -- are apparent here. The power of his message and his essence just glows.
Some quick quotes for those in a hurry:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.
We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
Ah, the creative psalm of brotherhood.
Bonus reading for the attention deficit crowd and/or Steve Earle fans: Christmas in Washington
So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring