TeeWillis speaks

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Justice, and President Barack Obama
TeeWillis, DaGray Enterprises
January 14, 2012

Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first Black president of the country on January 20, 2009, one day after the national holiday to commemorate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the major question facing the new president was whether he would investigate the many crimes of the Bush administration, holding the members of that administration accountable to the American people and the rule of law.

Those crimes were, in fact, the very assaults against the American people and the people of Iraq that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had fought all of his life against: injustice. As he put it in a speech two months before his assassination, “..if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. And all of the other shallow things won't matter.”

So, for those two days in January, 2009, the world's focus was on these two historical Black men. The “drum major for justice” and America's first Black president. I, for one, was skeptical. Skeptical, but still hopeful. I was hopeful that the new President Obama would rise to the call for justice that the people of this country were making...that Dr. King lived and died for. I was skeptical because I understood the American power system enough to know the limitations of power residing in the presidency.

And true to historical form, justice was denied. President Obama later declared as much in his now famous “We must look forward, not backward.” phrasing for passing on investigating crimes of the highest order. In reality, he had no other choice. But in the greater moral sense embodied in the life of Dr. King, his choice could not have been more wrong.

By placing members of the power elite above the law, President Obama opened up the floodgates for the continuation of their crimes against the American people that have occurred since: the banking scandal beginning in 2008, the housing crisis that has ravaged on since 2008, the escalation of the war on Afghanistan in 2009, the assaults on union rights, voting rights, and public service employees in over half the states in the country, the replacement of city governments with state-appointed administrators in several cities, the continual stripping away of Constitutional rights beyond even those contained in the Patriot Act, and the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court.

In sum, President Obama's abdication of his moral responsibility to the American people in his first days of office set the stage for the escalating assaults on the American people by the power elite that have occurred in these ensuing three years. The increase in economic and political injustice over these three years resulted in the emergence of the Occupy movement across the country-- a social movement in opposition to these economic and political injustices.
Below are the thoughts that I expressed on those two historical days in January, 2009. My prayer on that day has not been answered



Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Drum Major for Justice
TeeWillis
January 19, 2009

Today, the country officially commemorates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If today's commemoration is like every other year's, television networks and cable stations, radio stations, and newspapers across the land will present hours of programming and pages of print with the same portrait of Dr. King. They will all have one, and only one, common message delivered to their viewers, listeners, and readers. This message will be very simple and receiver-friendly. It will be this: Americans should remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an American hero because He Had A Dream--a dream that one day his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Some producers of the message will include brief references to the Montgomery bus boycott that Dr. King led, or the march in Selma, Alabama that Dr. King led. Some television programs will offer brief images of Black people in these marches and protests being attacked by firemen with water hoses and policemen with German Shepards. But the message that will be driven home is that Dr. King is to be remembered as the civil rights rights leader who Had A Dream.

Ask any school child today, "Who was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."? Ask most adults. Ask yourself; and what is the first image/answer that comes to your mind? Dr. King Had A Dream. He was a civil rights leader. He gave a speech at the Washington Monument.

What you will not see on television, what you will not hear on radio, what you will not read in newspapers, speak volumes about who Dr. Martin Luther King more fully was, what he more fully did to earn a place as an American hero. What you will not see, hear, or read is any one of his dozens and dozens of speeches--including the "I Have A Dream" speech--in its entirety. Not one will be presented in its entirety. You won't hear or read the "Letter From An Alabama Jail" speech. Nor will you hear, for instance, any of these speeches: "The Nobel Prize Acceptance", "The Birth of A New Nation", "Paul's Letter to American Christians", "Give Us The Ballot", "Eulogy for the Martyred Children", "Where Do We Go From Here?", or "Beyond Vietnam--Silence is Betrayal". You won't hear or read in the media any of Dr. King's speeches at all, especially in their entirety. Those are being kept from you in the media. Why?

To answer that question, all you have to do is read any one of his speeches in its entirety.

If you do, you will find that Dr. King was indeed, what he asked to be remembered as: "a drum major for justice." He was what was labeled during his lifetime and what is labeled today, a radical. He spoke truth to power. Unflinchingly and unafraid. He spoke out against and stood up against this nation's
domestic social and economic policies of oppression and exploitation, and its foreign policies of military conquest and domination. In one of his speeches, he boldly and simply stated that his country, America, is the greatest puveyor of violence in the world.

Not only that, but through the resonant cadence of his voice, through the reasoned development of his presentations, through the moral stance of his positions, he moved people. He was a leader of people standing up to a government's misuse of its power, at home and abroad.

So. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, either by the lone assassin "officially" identified as such and imprisoned; or by a conspiracy of those agencies that had the most to lose from Dr. King's rise to power as a leader. Neither has been proven to the satisfaction of many a people, although everyone has their opinion. Regardless, the result was that Dr. King's voice was silenced. The power of his leadership was squashed.

However, after his death, the power of his message to move people to stand up to their government's misuse of its power is still embedded in his speeches. You only have to make the effort to obtain a copy of one or more of them, and commit to listening to one, to know the truth of that statement.

But if you don't choose to make that effort and that commitment, you still can ask yourself, "Why does the media only present the one common, simple, receiver-friendly message given every year on this holiday?" Why?

Attached is one of Dr. Martin Luther King's speeches in its entirety. It is entitled, "A Time To Break Silence--Declaration Against The Vietnamese War." This speech was delivered by Dr. King on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in Harlem, New York--exactly one year before his assassination on April 4, 1968.

Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday today by reading this speech, in its entirety. To paraphrase an old saying, "A 'reading' is worth a thousand 'media messages."

Also attached is an article entitled, "Binding US Law Requires Prosecutions for Those Who Authorize Torture." Read this article after reading Dr. King's speech. Tomorrow, one day after we celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, we rightly celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama, the first Black man to be elected president of the United States. President Obama was indeed elected based on the content of his character, not the color of his skin. But President Obama will take office facing decisions that will shape the moral standing and essence of this nation as no president has faced in many generations. This article succinctly describes one of those decisions. The speech by Dr. King clearly states how he would decide on this issue, clearly presents the moral decision. What decision will President Obama end up making? I pray the right one.