From "I have a dream" to "I will seek authorization for the use of force"

From "I have a dream" to "I will seek authorization for the use of force," the final week of August 2013 was an intense one.

"I have a dream"

We had the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington reminding us of how far our nation has and hasn't come in achieving race equality, putting us in a self-reflective mood and highlighting the conflict between those who climbed up and, as a part of the establishment, are now standing on the shoulders of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other heroic civil rights advocates versus those who see such leaders as sellouts rather than as examples of the movement's successes.

Fifty years is not much time, in the grand scope of things; yet, because of the increasingly accelerated speed of change in modern society, it constitutes a huge generational gap in which the synergy of King's life and work has become subtly diluted.

Thoughts on World events, Sources of Anger, and the Coming Out of the Progressive Agenda

World events

World events over the past two months since my last post have been riveting. The elections came and went, and then, just as I foretold, Israel attacked Gaza, only ceasing when Obama, trying hard to pull off his pivot to Asia, sent Clinton to babysit. Egypt’s newly elected leader, Mohamed Morsi, shone in the international spotlight for his role in brokering the peace, only to set off violent conflict in his own country by letting his success go to his head and decreeing himself above the law. Though he backed off, the polarized nation continues to struggle with the significance of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood having come to power after the revolutionary uprising was sparked by the liberal opposition.

I had also been moved to write about Greece, and indeed, the situation there has only become more tense. Fallout from the Lagarde List scandal combines with austerity measures, pay cuts, and tax increases to force regular Greek citizens to carry heavy burdens for the corruption and ineptitude of their leaders. Add to the mix the growing influence of the neo-Nazi paramilitary Golden Dawn and their ability to crush freedom of expression in the birthplace of democracy, and the situation warrants even more attention from those who see that Greece’s fate is not isolated from the fate of other democracies of the world.

And so the world struggles forward, with conflicts and difficulties that seem, at the moment, to be heading away from rather than toward resolution...

Más allá de Vietnam: Un tiempo para romper el silencio (parte II) - Por el Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr con Lyndon B Johnson

Leer parte I de este discurso aquí

English speakers please read this astounding speech here:
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence By Rev. Martin Luther King, 4 April 1967

Más allá de Vietnam: Un tiempo para romper el silencio

parte II

Libertadores extraños

Nuestro gobierno se parece entonces que el pueblo vietnamita no estaban "listos" para la independencia, y volvimos a caer víctima de la arrogancia occidental mortal que ha envenenado la atmósfera internacional por tanto tiempo. Con esa trágica decisión rechazamos un gobierno revolucionario que buscaba la autodeterminación, y un gobierno que no se hubiese creado por China (para los que los vietnamitas no tienen gran amor), pero claramente por las fuerzas indígenas que incluía a algunos comunistas. Para los campesinos este nuevo gobierno significó una verdadera reforma agraria, una de las necesidades más importantes en sus vidas.

Más allá de Vietnam: Un tiempo para romper el silencio Por el Rev. Martin Luther King

Hoy es el Día de Martin Luther King, Jr. en los Estados Unidos. Por este presento el primer parte de un discurso menos conocida de los discursos del Dr. King en las masas, porque va más allá del tema de derechos civiles al tema de que todos somos conectados, una idea muy amenazadora a la estructura del poder de los Estados Unidos. Él fue asesinado exactamente un año después.

Esto es traducido por yo, entonces, puede ser menos que correcto. Sobre la traducción de las palabras “America” y “American,” conozco que la práctica es traducir estas palabras como “Los Estados Unidos” y “estadounidenses,” por sus intentos. Pero la verdad es que los estadounidenses casi siempre se refirieren a su país como “America,” incluso cuando estan tan conciente que Dr. King erá de que los Estados Unidos son sólo parte de América.

English speakers please read this astounding speech here:
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence By Rev. Martin Luther King, 4 April 1967