I'm one.
"Faithful remember Martin Luther King Jr.’s message; Civil rights leader focus of sermons" by Jeremy C. Fox | Globe Correspondent, January 21, 2013
Reverend Joseph Nangle, a Franciscan friar visiting from Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Arlington, Va., challenged people of all faiths to call upon Obama, as King once called upon President Lyndon B. Johnson, to confront issues of poverty, war abroad, and violence at home.
We've gotten a lot of talk on the first, silence on the second, and a gun grab regarding the third.
“Our Catholic Church in America, I believe, has become what Dr. King called ‘a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound,’ ” Nangle said, quoting King’s influential “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
And that was way before the pooper-pumping became known.
Nangle said the church had become too associated with “opposition to abortion, stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage” when its focus should be on opposition to “national and global poverty, war-making, and the destruction of our beautiful planet.”
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You know, he's just old news now, right?
Related: The Modern Day Jesus Christ
He's about as close as they come.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"King honored on a day symbolizing his dream; Nation marks his birthday as Obama sworn in" by Kate Brumback | Associated Press, January 22, 2013
ATLANTA — Commemorative events for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. slid seamlessly into celebrations of the swearing-in Monday of the nation’s first black president, with many Americans moved by the reminder of how far the country has come since the 1960s.
‘‘This is the dream that Dr. King talked about in his speech. We see history in the making,’’ said Joyce Oliver, who observed King Day by visiting the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, built on the site of the old Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated in 1968....
In the nation’s capital, dozens took pictures of the King statue before walking to the National Mall for the inauguration.
Nicole Hailey, 34, drove all night with her family from Monroe, N.C. She attended Obama’s first inauguration four years ago and was carrying a commemorative Metro ticket from that day with Obama’s face on it.
She and her family visited the King memorial before the swearing-in.
‘‘It’s Martin Luther King’s special day,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re just celebrating freedom.’’
At the ceremonial inauguration, Obama took the oath on a Bible once owned by King. He called it ‘‘a great privilege.’’ The King Bible was one of two used; the other had belonged to Abraham Lincoln.
Also see: Inaugurating Obama's Dictatorship
And the AmeriKan people think it's a good thing.
In Columbia, S.C., civil rights leaders paused during their annual King Day rally to watch the inauguration on a big screen.
Most of the crowd of several hundred stayed to watch Obama’s address.
‘‘You feel like anything is possible,’’ Jelin Cunningham, a 15-year-old black girl, said of Obama’s presidency. ‘‘I’ve learned words alone can’t hurt or stop you, because there have been so many hateful things said about him over the past four years.’’
At the Atlanta service, King’s youngest daughter, Bernice King, said the country had been through a difficult year, with divisive elections, military conflicts, and natural disasters.
‘‘We pray that this day will be the beginning of a new day in America,’’ she said. ‘‘It will be a day when people draw inspiration from the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It will be a day when people realize and recognize that if it were not for Dr. King and those who fought the fight in that movement, we would not be celebrating this presidency.’’
She stressed her father’s commitment to nonviolence, saying that after the 1956 bombing of the family’s home in Montgomery, Ala., her father stood on the porch and urged an angry, armed crowd to fight with Christian love — not guns.
‘‘This apostle of nonviolence perhaps introduced one of the bravest experiences of gun control that we’ve ever heard of in the history of our nation,’’ she said.
I'm tired of having the man's legacy being twisted to suit the current political needs of the agenda.
The service also kicked off a year of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of King’s ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech, delivered Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. Students led by King’s great-niece Farris Christine Watkins delivered sections of the speech in turn.
By the end, the crowd was on its feet, shouting, ‘‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’’
Would King think that now after everything that has happened over the last 50 years?
The keynote speaker was the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a socially conservative evangelical association. It marked the first time a Latino had been invited to deliver the King Day address at Ebenezer Baptist.
He urged the audience to complete King’s dream.
‘‘Silence is not an option when 30 million of our brothers and sisters live in poverty,’’ he said. ‘‘Silence is not an option when 11 million undocumented individuals continue to live in the shadows.’’
Apparently it is an option when it comes to carrying on wars to expand the AmeriKan empire.
Around the country, parades, service projects and memorials marked the holiday.
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