Eugene Robinson on the Jena Six
Posted by Matt Ortega · September 21, 2007 · Comments (0)
Eugene Robinson penned a must-read column regarding the Jena Six, the scary reality that it flew way below the national media’s radar for so long and how black activists made it a national story.
In case you are anything like Fred Thompson, former Republican senator from Tennessee and 2008 presidential candidate, here’s a refresher from Robinson:
Most people know the outlines of the story by now, but here’s a synopsis: Black students at the local high school sat under a tree that everyone knew was a place where white students usually congregated. White students reacted by hanging three nooses in the tree. Racial tensions escalated from there, including fights in which both black and white students got roughed up, but no one was seriously injured. Local officials, who are white, handled the white offenders with a “boys will be boys” attitude — a few brief school suspensions, basically. Black offenders were expelled from school, arrested and charged as adults with felony offenses, including attempted murder.
The Jena Six sounds like a story from the 1950s but as Robinson notes, this happened just last year. The Washington Post columnist finished with one of my favorite lines from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
San Diego Mayor Reverses Position on Gay Marriage
Posted by Matt Ortega · September 20, 2007 · Comments (1)
Republican San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders gave an impassioned speech reversing his stance on gay marriage from oppose to support. Read more »
Novak Accuses Clinton of “Padding Civil Rights Résumé”
Posted by Matt Ortega · March 12, 2007 · Comments (0)
Conservative columnist Robert Novak crafted a theory about Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) that was created completely out of thin air with no factual support to it in today’s Washington Post.
Horses Mouth blogger, Greg Sargent, debunked the basis of Novak’s entire column.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
Posted by Matt Ortega · January 14, 2007 · Comments (0)
Coretta Scott King Honored
Posted by Matt Ortega · February 10, 2006 · Comments (0)
Earlier this year, this nation was dealt a huge blow with the passing of Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Even after Dr. King’s death in April 1968, Mrs. King continued her late husband’s efforts to advance the nonviolent movement for justice, equality and peace with The King Center. Mrs. King advocated women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights (including same-sex marriages), was anti-war and opposed the death penalty.
The memorial for Mrs. King was held in Lithonia, Georgia and several prominent dignitaries showed, including former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President Bush and the First Lady, Laura Bush, also attended, along with “three governors, three plane loads of Congress members, celebrities, gospel starts and leading figures in the civil rights movement.”
During the memorial, several speakers made headlines with comments about the war in Iraq, the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina and the National Security Agency’s surveillance program.
Dr. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King:
“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there [standing ovation]… but Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”
Former President Jimmy Carter, signed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978:
“It was difficult for [Dr. King and Mrs. King] personally — with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretapping, other surveillance and as you know, harassment from the FBI.” [...]
“We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi — those who were most devastated by Katrina — to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans.
The media went crazy with charges such as “Democratic pep rally” and “Democratic convention” - familiar charges surrounding late Senator Paul Wellstone’s funeral several years ago.
However, as Media Matters notes, such claims were absent during the 2004 funeral of former President Ronald Reagan:
But many of those same media figures accusing speakers of politicizing the King funeral did not show the same aversion to the politicization of the 2004 death of a figure of a different political stripe: former President Ronald Reagan. Nor did they apparently think it worth noting that the Reagan funeral included no Democratic speakers, but a long roster of Republicans, including President Bush, who was running for re-election and was reportedly trying to attach himself to the Reagan legacy. [...]
While the media have devoted substantial coverage to Carter and Lowery’s purported politicization of the King funeral, the June 11, 2004, funeral for Reagan did not provoke similar scrutiny, despite clear political overtones. For example, the media largely ignored the fact that no Democrats were invited to speak at either the funeral at the National Cathedral or at a ceremony held on Capitol Hill two days earlier. (President Clinton had even delivered a eulogy at former President Richard Nixon’s funeral a decade earlier). [...]The King funeral, by contrast, included speeches by two Republican presidents and two Democratic presidents, as noted above.
Top Ten Reasons Why Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal
Posted by Matt Ortega · October 15, 2005 · Comments (0)
1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.
7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.
9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.