Stina and I share a special belief in MLK, Jr. Day. We believe it is a day for social action. It is a day to celebrate not only the successes of the civil rights movement, but also the struggles of all movements toward a more just world. It is a day to advance and discuss those struggles more than anything.
We arrived outside the Mahalia Jackson Center for the Performing Arts a few moments before 9 and the beginning of the rally that was to precede what I expected to be a march for social justice and all the good things Dr. King stood for. About 20 people stood milling around a foot-and-a-half tall platform.
I hope they were expecting more people, because they had 6 port-a-potties set up.
At nine, the speakers began, one after another, to praise themselves and the people they represent. Some praised Barack Obama. Some praised Mayor Nagin. One praised the Jewish people. Many praised God.
Perhaps, in moderation, it is a good thing to tell people of the good you have done, and the good the people who support you do. It is not, however, a hard thing to do, and it does not, on this day of all days, advance the causes you may be fighting for... not that I'm even sure any of them had any particular causes they were fighting for.
Well, this wasn't altogether without precedent. In 2008 we attended a packed gymnasium rally on MLK, Jr. Day. While much of it reiterated the struggles that continue each day, about 20% of it was dedicated to praises of Barack Obama. Sometimes people get so caught up in their political agenda that they forget the reasons behind the agenda, i.e. they pay more attention to promoting a candidate than they do to solving the problems that led to their supporting this particular candidate.
But here we were. Folks eventually began trickling to the area. An 8-year-old girl with the lungs of a lion sang a stirring rendition of "Children Are Our Future", and an angry man with a sign booed city council members for not making the charity hospital enough of a priority during these ongoing rebuilding efforts. Many prayers were spoken, most calling on Jesus to make us complacent ... er, to place our fate in His hands and allow Him to guide us.
Girl's got chops:
After the non-rally, Stina and I were ready to put our voices out there. A political march, especially one on so auspicious a day as MLK, Jr.'s birthday, is an occasion to open up political discussion. People who don't often talk about the ramifications of the current social crises, can't help but be aware as hundreds of people march by, all of them announcing the significance of the day and the significance of non-violent social and political action. Last year, immigation policy was at the forefront of people's minds, at least during the march in Seattle, and I think some of the ground held and gains won on that front during the past year found their seeds in the awareness developed during this day set to commemorate not just a man, but the successes of a movement.
After the unrally, not a march, but a parade of cheerleaders, dance teams, marching bands, radio show hosts, and high school basketball players was observed by hundreds if not thousands of people lining the streets for miles. The only political flavor to it (there was no indication on signs or anywhere that this was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) was a small band (20 or so) of union workers marching with union pride and the Free Palestine group of another 20 or so. They were vastly underwhelming compared to the dozens of schools, each with dozens of dancers, cheerleaders, drummers, and brass players. I don't mean to demean the importance of these artistic and athletic programs. If they had complemented the meaning of the day... if they had even acknowledged the meaning of the day, I would have felt that their purpose in the parade was known. But 3 schools dancing to the new Beyonce song, "Single Ladies" doesn't evoke images of MLK, Jr. or struggles past and current.
The parade was to end at the Superdome, a vast arena in which high school students could hear speeches of great men and women imploring them to take up the banner. We attended. Surely, here, with the ears of the leaders of tomorrow held captive (or at least well-bribed with free tickets to the Hornets game that afternoon) the most influential voices of New Orleans and Louisiana would speak, rich with inspiration, of the successes of the past and their hopes for the future.
We were greeted, firstly, with collages projected onto 2 screens of photos intermingling Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Hussein Obama. I'm sorry, but that's really too much for me. Barack Obama is an important man. He is also black. He is also a good speaker. But this is MLK, Jr. Day. I think the man deserves more than a nod in the upper right hand corner of the screen:
What message are they trying to send?
It soon became clear. The first pastor to speak, after asking us to pray with him for an end to murder, dope, abortion, and premarital sex, asked everyone to stand and sing "We Have Overcome". I hope you all noticed that. As if struggle is a thing of the past, he asks us to sing. As if 49% of prisoners were not black, he asks us to sing. As if working class Americans all have heath insurance, he asks us to sing. As if women making 78 cents to the dollar suddenly found that 22 cents, he asks us to sing.
This was followed by more politicians not just praising themselves, but suggesting that the audience wanted to be just like them. No talk of social action in any immediate sense.
No wonder Americans complain about apathetic and disaffected youth. I find more inspiration in sanitary no-touch hand dryers.
Stina:
We did go to a New Orleans MLK day event, but we were not thrilled by it. The coolest part about it was an eight year old girl singing the song that goes "Because the greatest love of all is in me." I don't know the title. She had such a powerful voice, it was amazing. And they said she opened for Ellen in Las Vegas and I think she's been on the Ellen show. The "march" from the opening event to another event was really a parade, which is cool, but there wasn't much of a feeling like it meant anything. It all felt kind of superficial. The second part of the event really just felt like an Obama rally, but no one said anything inspirational or even interesting. One lame preacher guy had the audience sing "We Shall Overcome" but with the lyrics as "We have overcome" instead, and that felt very wrong to me. It implied that there is no further effort we need to make for equality in this world just because we now have a black president. As if this was the ultimate and only goal of the civil rights struggle. So we were really disappointed. We watched the inauguration today and that was cool. I liked Obama's speech for the most part, and I was really happy there was an inaugural poem, but irritated that CNN cut away from the poet as she was reading the end of it. Tonight we're getting together with some friends to play games and watch the inauguration re-broadcast. They have a pretty huge tv! It should be fun.
After the unrally, not a march, but a parade of cheerleaders, dance teams, marching bands, radio show hosts, and high school basketball players was observed by hundreds if not thousands of people lining the streets for miles. The only political flavor to it (there was no indication on signs or anywhere that this was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) was a small band (20 or so) of union workers marching with union pride and the Free Palestine group of another 20 or so. They were vastly underwhelming compared to the dozens of schools, each with dozens of dancers, cheerleaders, drummers, and brass players. I don't mean to demean the importance of these artistic and athletic programs. If they had complemented the meaning of the day... if they had even acknowledged the meaning of the day, I would have felt that their purpose in the parade was known. But 3 schools dancing to the new Beyonce song, "Single Ladies" doesn't evoke images of MLK, Jr. or struggles past and current.
The parade was to end at the Superdome, a vast arena in which high school students could hear speeches of great men and women imploring them to take up the banner. We attended. Surely, here, with the ears of the leaders of tomorrow held captive (or at least well-bribed with free tickets to the Hornets game that afternoon) the most influential voices of New Orleans and Louisiana would speak, rich with inspiration, of the successes of the past and their hopes for the future.
We were greeted, firstly, with collages projected onto 2 screens of photos intermingling Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Hussein Obama. I'm sorry, but that's really too much for me. Barack Obama is an important man. He is also black. He is also a good speaker. But this is MLK, Jr. Day. I think the man deserves more than a nod in the upper right hand corner of the screen:
What message are they trying to send?
It soon became clear. The first pastor to speak, after asking us to pray with him for an end to murder, dope, abortion, and premarital sex, asked everyone to stand and sing "We Have Overcome". I hope you all noticed that. As if struggle is a thing of the past, he asks us to sing. As if 49% of prisoners were not black, he asks us to sing. As if working class Americans all have heath insurance, he asks us to sing. As if women making 78 cents to the dollar suddenly found that 22 cents, he asks us to sing.
This was followed by more politicians not just praising themselves, but suggesting that the audience wanted to be just like them. No talk of social action in any immediate sense.
No wonder Americans complain about apathetic and disaffected youth. I find more inspiration in sanitary no-touch hand dryers.
Stina:
We did go to a New Orleans MLK day event, but we were not thrilled by it. The coolest part about it was an eight year old girl singing the song that goes "Because the greatest love of all is in me." I don't know the title. She had such a powerful voice, it was amazing. And they said she opened for Ellen in Las Vegas and I think she's been on the Ellen show. The "march" from the opening event to another event was really a parade, which is cool, but there wasn't much of a feeling like it meant anything. It all felt kind of superficial. The second part of the event really just felt like an Obama rally, but no one said anything inspirational or even interesting. One lame preacher guy had the audience sing "We Shall Overcome" but with the lyrics as "We have overcome" instead, and that felt very wrong to me. It implied that there is no further effort we need to make for equality in this world just because we now have a black president. As if this was the ultimate and only goal of the civil rights struggle. So we were really disappointed. We watched the inauguration today and that was cool. I liked Obama's speech for the most part, and I was really happy there was an inaugural poem, but irritated that CNN cut away from the poet as she was reading the end of it. Tonight we're getting together with some friends to play games and watch the inauguration re-broadcast. They have a pretty huge tv! It should be fun.
4 comments:
Brendan: chill out! People need a chance to revel in the good things that have already happened. There's no point in getting bent out of shape over the fact that the rest of New Orleans didn't conform to your personal vision of what MLK Day should be.
Interesting perspective. But 22 cents difference in average wage-not 12.
Jesse: While reveling in past glories is all well and good, the context of current struggle provides an impetus to action. While you may think very little is worth arguing for or expressing disappointment over, I think analyzing an event and its failings and successes helps us discover how to motivate ourselves and others.
Mom: Thanks. You do good math.
We just had Thanksgiving and Christmas to revel in good things. Since there are still a lot of bad things in the world, most of them due to human malfeasance both legal and illegal, and Martin Luther King, Jr was all about social change and was killed to stop it, I do think that self-aggrandizing politicians and heavy back-patting is inappropriate and disappointing.
Viva la Lucha!
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