Forum Post: Who Will Be Our Martin Luther King?
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 2, 2011, 10:38 p.m. EST by puff6962
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I know of nobody.
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I nominate Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
No. Leaders of a group that is perceived to be "radical" should not be perceived as radicals. Plus, neither of these people have any speaking skills. Somebody call Rick Warren or Brad Pitt....anybody....just find somebody that embodies the normalcy of your objectives.
"neither of these people have any speaking skills" ????????????????????
did you ever hear them speak?
EW:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIHku7dOSQsAXAH6w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-?p=elizabeth+warren&ei=utf-8&fr=altavista&fr2=sfp
Bernie:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIHku7dOSQsAXAH6w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-?p=bernie+sanders&ei=utf-8&fr=altavista&fr2=sfp
You don't need non-violence, you need a RayGun.
Let me govern your government.
I'm troll-approved.
Occupy Wall Street should not put forth any demands, only sentiments. Demands will lessen sympathy for your movement and you will be pounced upon as "radicals." Instead, circumscribe a dialogue of issues that require addressing in our country. You should highlight the excessive influence of corporations and the rich in our political process and outrages such as counterparties to AIG were bailed out at 100 cents on the dollar, yet Americans needing flexibility in refinancing a mortgage are robosigned and left on the street. Bailing out the rich at the expense of the poor has been a staple of societies dominated by the wealth going back to the Roman Empire. It should not happen in a democracy, but it has happened here. I would recommend that you maintain themes of meritocracy, opportunity for all, the instabilities that extremes of income produce in societies, the plight of students seeking college loans, the exportation of jobs to countries with the cheapest labor (and most lax labor and environmental laws), offshore tax havens for corporations and the wealthy, and--most importantly--the necessity of shared sacrifice as we try to work our way out of this mess and build a better future for our children. You will be countered by very powerful media and lobbying forces with unlimited (Koch brothers) resources. You must be prepared to counter the crap phrase "class warfare." The right cannot allow any discussion of economic inequality in this country because it will highlight numbers and trends they don’t want most people to know, particularly when their policies have produced them. If you .........have any free time, everyone of you should read "The Big Con," by Jonathan Chait and commit it to memory. There has been class warfare in America since the 1980's and it has been waged by the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor. The right has pushed the debate to such extremes that any mention of raising taxes, even during times of war and exploding deficits, is vehemently attacked. The money, think tanks, media, lobbyists, and power behind these attacks are coordinated and, again, are backed by almost unlimited resources. .
Your mission is therefore a longshot and I think your best hope is to avoid overreach. You are not demonstrating to supply the answer, you are occupying Wall Street because nobody seems to be asking the right questions. I live in Kansas and groups of settlers moving westward from here were often told to "pull their own weight" yet everyone was “in this together." The juxtaposition of individual responsibility and collective regard has always defined American greatness and progress. The right, blinded by greed and fear, has never learned to live within this paradox. It is time for us all to begin giving them lessons.
We don't need an MLK, we needs lots and lots and lots of Rosa Parks'.
She didn't set out to be a symbol she just did a tiny act for what she believed in. Just like all those nameless people who sat in at lunch counters and movie theaters, who went to schools where nearly no one wanted them. All the faceless who, in defiance, voted anyway.
Everyone of us must step up, speak out and act!
No. You do need a MLK or you will get nowhere and your movement will be defined by your worst elements.
King fought for equal justice, not social justice.
You've not heard his words on poverty, have you?
Huh?
http://www.theroot.com/views/kings-final-battle
TROLL You have NO IDEA what you're talking about!!
Dr. King was about to lead the "Poor People's March" into Washington when he was assassinated.
If you want the best demonstration of a mass movement with no leaders, but a core mission and identifiable objectives, then you have no farther to look than your local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting hall.
For eighty years, participants, people of vastly different backgrounds, drunks....have found a way to work together towards a common mission.
How'd they do it? Well, somebody wrote a book that became the general literature of the members. They got on the same page.
Next, they had to learn to work together and how to manage their organization. So, they developed the Twelve Traditions that guided disparate AA groups and the organization as a whole.
Someone needs to get started on a workbook or unifying literature.....I would suggest that you just use Jonathan Chait's, "The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America." It is simply the most readable, concise, and descriptive work that will help you identify what needs to be changed (and how then to do it). I cannot recommend it enough.
For principles that should be used to organize members....well, I've already proposed some. Look at the post below. These guidelines have kept AA a very functional entity for 80 years. I don't think that we could do any better.
Our common welfare should come first; progress depends upon OWS unity.
For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
The only requirement for membership is a desire for a better America and a better world.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or OWS as a whole.
Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the citizen who suffers.
An OWS group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the OWS name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
Every OWS group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining corporate or political contributions.
OWS should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
OWS, as such, ought never be centralized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
OWS is a movement meant to highlight important issues. We support objectives, but issue no demands; hence the OWS name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films. There is, as such, no official spokesperson for the movement.
Compassion is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The movement is just forming. It's a vibrant environment of exchange of ideas and contacts. People will emerge naturally, don't force it.
The events in Oakland today will cast a frightening shadow over this movement. So, you called for a strike, shut down a port.....you won a battle. But, winning this battle will scare the hell out of ordinary moderate Americans and will be detrimental in the long run. Stick to highlighting financial abuse. Stick to teachers out of work. Stick to bridges that need to be fixed now. Stick to promoting objectives without making demands.
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19246904
I nominate SirPoeticJustice
Me too!
If we give people a stage, I believe we will find our MLK/Gandhi. There are videos on youtube from talented speakers speaking about OWS. But I haven't seen any of them go viral.
In some cities (like oakland) there is no ban on speakers. So it might be more likely in one of those places.
Perhaps you should have a speaker propose a set of rules in Oakland that encourage protesters not to do things that will turn the world against us.
You TROLLS have your undisputed king, Rush Limbaugh.
No matter how much you call me a troll, it doesn't make it true.
No it is Ron PauI.
No, it is NOT. Dr. Paul is a good, intelligent, sincere man - you TROLLS have nothing in common with him. In fact, you are unworthy of untying his shoe-laces. Rush Limbaugh or Herman Cain, THEY are at your level.
Oh, please. MLK's demonstrations, unlike OWS, had a point! Civil rights demonstrators also went back to their homes and jobs when each demonstration ended. It wasn't an endless, aimless hipster fest.
What about the Veteran's occupation during the Great Depression. Did those guys go home at night?
They didn't, and they also didn't accomplish anything important. It's hard to compare the Bonus Army with OWS. The Bonus Army had one extremely specific demand -- the early payment of their bonuses. Also their camps were extremely well organized and disciplined.
We all will be: http://notetoanon.com/2011/11/01/occupy-decision/
Material goods. It is often found in those who have been given immense fortune.
Poverty should not be looked at as a badge of honor. It is a stain on the soul, one that is not easily erased by the helping hands of another. It requires the individual to take difficult steps to change behavior and work on improving the self, so that the head can be held high with self-pride. And before anyone criticizes me on the evils of being rich, realize that the wealthiest amongst us are poor in spirit and have precious little in what is truly important in any life - the love of another. Poverty is not confined to a lack of matwrial
If we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
RFK
Puff6962 - while I was reading this, I had hope that a great dialogue was about to begin... Now I'll have to go to a medium to continue the conversation!
But thank you for a beautifully written thought, even if it did come from a mind and a man greater than most living today...
I vote you!
King had dignity. He had class. When he marched, he made sure the marchers would be home in time for dinner (unless they got arrested or beaten). He urged his followers to dress up neatly and to be well-behaved. Public defamation, urination, intoxication? Not on his watch!
Hear hear
Everyone in this forum read this^^
Lets find him and elect him on our own voting system
built ready in Drupal, same as used by whitehouse.gov
www.uponlocal.com
propose an issue , solution, debate, or nominate a candidate, it is ready to go,
has a fulll mobile verison to take over OWS from Anarchists by bringing organization on the ground with cell phones. has a full blown OWS communication system better than twitter
http://uponlocal.com/up-on-local-media/OSW-Info-Items
Vote
http://uponlocal.com/up-on-local-media/node/add/issue
http://uponlocal.com/up-on-local-media/node/add/solutions
http://uponlocal.com/up-on-local-media/node/add/candidate
the whole database is attached to the geonames database, so everything is organized also by location, and displays on a google map..
covers the globe
Good, we don't want leaders. When King died the movement died with him.
What a ridiculous thing to say. King's movement was instrumental in crushing Jim Crow forever -- establishing civil rights and voting rights. By the time he was murdered, his movement's work was mostly done.
I believe it was just started.
By the time he died, he had expanded his mission. He took on two new issues.....he became antiwar and antipoverty.
These new issues made him very unpopular with many who had previously been sympathetic to the civil right's movement.
Both are issues charged with emotion and with ill defined battle lines. Many of us would do well to see where Mr. King seemed to loose the precision that had marked his guidance of protests and messages relating to civil rights. His rhetoric became more blanketing and his support could neither be mobilized or concentrated on the new issues.
Um, what. Does not compute.
MLK was preparing for a poor people's march when he was assassinated. That was the last we heard about poor people for a long while in this country.
Oh, I see.
I Nominate Myself For Everything Except The Dying Part.
OK if you need an "MLK" I'll do it....as Shakespear sais,"First we kill the lawyers"
Shakespeare meant the opposite of what you think he meant.
No, he said to kill all of the liars...but the two became synonymous.
This is the age of teamwork to create a world free from basic wants. The team in this case is the 99%
There will be divisions in your team just as there were in the student protests of the Vietnam era.
I have seen some people who would make excellent leaders in the movement.
I say I can lead in the right direction. I have a degree in logic. I will take the podium. Let's debate now. Go.
Please read my post below this one.
I slightly disagree with #11 to a certain degree.
Why?
A leaderless movement can fall apart easily, especially with such diverse views and methods. To secure the correct message, someone needs to have majority consented "control".
Don't insult Dr. King by making a comparison to this movement, please...
We ARE the ones we're waiting for. Don't rely on single leaders. Why wish that on someone? Lincoln, King, the Kennedys, Joan of Arc.
Occupy is 15 Million worldwide and growing in a little over 2 Months! What single leader or group of leaders could claim that ? We did it and are doing it by ourselves and with each other.
We are at the tight space now..... Dialogue.....education. We should neither need nor want "demands" and leaders until we have built structure, methodology and direction.
Occupy is 15 Million worldwide
Hold on. 15 million is 99 percent of 7 billion? Damn, my school screwed me.
They don't include all of those pathetic homeless people, so it is WAY less than 7 billion.
We need someone who is non-biased and is not looking for his own benefit.
MLK would laugh at this bunch!
Don't dirty that name with your filthy toung
"Where there is no vision, the people perish." --Proverbs 29:18
We don't need no nig...we already have one running the show.....and he suxs
Thank you, peanut gallery.
You realize that your mother knows about that drawer full of tissues.
bitchslap....boooooyaaaaaa.
Shut up before I grab your little Nicky
Johnny Bench Called. Donut boy, is that you?
Puff puff give.........that's right biiiaaaatccchhh....I'm back!
Couldn't stay away.....or are you just between masturbation sessions. You're going to need new batteries for that thing.
Both
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Brilliant. I now remember seeing something about this guy on a television show or newscast. Thank you for alerting me to this....I will now read more about him.
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Why do you think you need one? Some people are such pathetic lost sheep (i.e. "Oh, PLEEEASE!!! Somebody LEAD ME!!!" Sorry, but it's pathetic.
So that you have some direction.
I have direction; I don't need to be guided. Man, some people really are pathetic.
Mark my words, if a leader does not emerge in this movement, then OWS will be nothing more than a bunch of radical protesters that show up at shareholder meetings or bank openings. Worse, when some of your membership do something questionable, then you all will get tagged.
You're imagining a utopian group without direction, clear objectives, or leadership and I would challenge you to show me one such movement in history that has ever achieved anything.
The Arab Spring.
Oh, but the Arab spring is still a story being written and, if you will remember, there was coordination of the demonstrations, demands, clear and immediate objectives, and mass support for the efforts.
You have none of these at this time.
You're engaging in goal post moving; our disagreement is over the notion that 'direction' is impossible without leadership. You 'challenged' me to name a leaderless movement that ever accomplished anything, and I did.
You're imagining a utopian group without direction,
Hey! We have rapes aplenty! That is our direction.
I vote for Al Sharpton.
If you need another Martin Luther King start by finding someone LIKE King.
Who has engaged im plagiarism while writing his doctoral thesis and "unwinds" by getting drunk and cheating on his wife- sometimes with prostitutes who he beats.
He also associated with homosexuals and communists but so does most if not all of the OWS crowd.
Happy hunting.
Christ associated with prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers.
He didn't get drunk and beat the prostitutes now did he?
No, Republicans do that.
Bitchslap....boooyaaaaaa.
I'm not a Republican.
Then why are you getting drunk and beating prostitutes?
boooooyaaaaaa boooooyaaaaaaa
We need a martyr. Its a shame Scott Olsen didn't die, or we could have really grown.
Why don't you paint a bullseye on your head instead of on your bunghole.
Bitchslap.
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