<p>On the contrary, Obama obviously enjoys King and King’s brand of righteous religion–see his 20 year church attendance. He was driven away from that powerful church tradition by fearful, PC-mad boomers who would croak if an AfAm preacher used words like ‘fatal’ and ‘revolt’ in a 2008 sermon.</p>
<p>Out of respect, Obama avoided both soaring rhetoric and ‘I have a Dream’ references. He let the drama of the acceptance mark that amazing anniversary. Personally, through my tears I must say, I saw King’s dream on every middle-aged and elderly AfAm face and I heard King’s speech in every AfAm statement. Didn’t you? </p>
<p>Oh yes–and the audience of 85,000 and 38 million, the fireworks and the stage setting–it was all a powerful, symbolic tribute to King’s dream, cleverly positioned on the anniversary of that ‘soaring’, somewhat accidental, Dream speech from a great AfAm orator of that era.</p>
<p>King himself must have been dancing in heaven to see a family like the Obamas standing in the midst of those fireworks.</p>
<p>Since I haven’t cast a vote for Obama yet, (I voted for Hillary in the primary), I haven’t done anything brave–other than anonymously point out the fear surrounding Wright and compare it to the astonishing lack of fear my ordinary parents–one of whom is now an avid Rush Limbaugh fan–had.</p>
<p>No, just cemented in the front lawn. That was more than enough! Oh, and they also read big books, in PUBLIC on their chaise lounges!, rather than just looking at the pictures in magazines.</p>
<p>The Mr. died in 1997. Here’s what the New York Times said about him in the obit:</p>
<p>“He will be remembered by his friends and family as an outstanding ‘‘Mentsch’’, and humanitarian, committed to the betterment of society. He was a righteous man in a secular context and will be sorely missed by us all.”</p>
<p>Now if those aren’t code words for “Communist”, I don’t know what is!</p>
<p>My dad was born in North Georgia in 1909. He was a strong supporter of Civil Rights with one exception that I remember (He thought my grandmother should be able to select her boarders using whatever criteria she pleased.).</p>
<p>He was disappointed that MLK Jr. broke the law and thought less of him for doing so.</p>
<p>However, sometime in the 1980s, he said when we were discussing the history that he believed that, without MLK Jr., we would have not gotten the laws right.</p>
<p>That’s a great quote mini. The “betterment of society.” Never thought of of it that way, but of course communists were in favor of bettering society. Just not people, because human beings never entered the equation.
And i know many “mentsches” and they never build bombs with nails.</p>
<p>American Communists never built any bombs with nails (are you mixing them up with American-made cluster bombs?) They just kept secret watch on the traffic on 251st Street (only two miles from the Sperry Gyroscope Plant!)</p>
<p>No mini, I’m not mixing them up with cluster bombs. Just saying that there were American, domestic terrorists who designed bombs filled with nails.</p>
<p>I was 13. From my parents, frankly, I honestly don’t remember a reaction one way or the other. My father didn’t talk much (about anything!). He was an Eisenhower Republican/my mother a mainstream Democrat. Actually, I don’t even remember watching it. I know it wasn’t talked about in school (where they bussed in 10 kids from five miles away, and called it integrated).</p>
<p>I picked up much more talk about my “Communist” neighbors (not from my parents, but from the other neighbors) than about King. A postcript: when I returned from college after my first year, about 2/3rds of the block had cemented in their 12X14s. The Communists had won!</p>