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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, January 15, 2007

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

"[W]e must find an alternative to war and bloodshed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing mankind is sleeping through a great revolution. President Kennedy said on one occasion, 'Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.' The world must hear this. I pray to God that America will hear this before it is too late, because today we’re fighting a war."

Mankind put an end, both to Martin Luther King, Jr., and JFK. But not to what they said.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is profound. Too bad our President's reading leveltops out at "My Pet Goat".

Anonymous said...

very fitting post for today Bernie, thank you.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Thanks John and Addicted. Ususally, the shorter my post, the better they are liked. Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

Bernie,

More than 30 years ago, I was editor of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local at Redstone Arsenal and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, when the local was trying to help AFGE's AFofL sister local representing city-employee refuse workers (all African-Americans)be officially recognized by the city's mayor and council.

That was when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, 200 miles to the west of Huntsvill, while trying to help organize the refuse workers (again, all or predominently African-American)in that city.

Dr. King's movement began, as you know, of course, in Montgomery, Alabama, with the bus boycott, and the Movement began within the South's Black churces, mostly AMEs.

The first victime of the New Jersey Highland's Act of Mike Perrucci and his law partner Jim Florio is Lopatcong Township's Philipsburg Alliance Church, founded in 1928

The Highland's Act is denying the church to expand, a denial that has led the church to file a federal lawsuit against New Jersey DEP.

Lopatcong Township's mayor and Chairman of the Warren County Republican Party Committee is Douglas Steinhardt, and also a law partner of Perruci amd Florio.

Douglas Steinhardt's father, Joseph, is the municipal judge of Lopatcong (and Hackettstown)and is being promoted by Perrucci to replace Judge Robert Elwood as municipal judge of Phillipsburg.

Anonymous said...

Bernie,

Northampton County Executive Glenn Reiman and Court of Common Pleas President Judge Robert Freedburg broke ground for the Government Center Expansion on Martin Luther Jr. Day, the first step in the final destruction of the predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhood of Dutchtown-Gallows Hill.

You remember that day. You were at the Government Center, and you acted as the on-the-spot reporter for Sunny WGPA-AM 1100's talk/call-in radio show.

You described the silly Judge Freedburg riding around the Center's grounds on a tractor, symbolically, while Reibman and other county dignitaries brandished shiny, symbolic steel ground-breaking shovels.

As for me, I wrote and distributed Billy Bytes newsletters and website articles about the way Reibman and Freedburg chose to honor Dr. King.

My own blog had not been created at that time.

Anonymous said...

I hope that you are doing Better Billy, but I think you need to rename your blog, "Reality Bytes!"

Anonymous said...

The vision of Dr. King in his most famous speeck, "I Have a Dream," was not a reality at the time, and it still isn't.

My earlier comment referred to the refuse workers of Membphis, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama.

Today, here in Easton, Pennsylvnia, while most government and many commercial operations are closed in honor of Dr. King, the refuse collectors over whom Easton exercises administrative control, are still picking up the detritus of a wasteful community - as are all materialistic societies of America today.

As I recall, a Governor of Arizon, where members of my immediate family from Alabama now live, was driven from office because of his refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday.

Yes, Anononymous, at 2:36 PM (Comment No. 6), I may be a dreamer, and divorced from reality, but keep the faith that I am not alone.