Removed Video from blog

Just a little housekeeping. There was a video on this blog for a long time. The blog posting was called “Video: The real Martin Luther King Jr.”

Well, I removed it.

It is not that I do not believe the content that was in the video.  It is how it was presented and who produced the video.

I am sure that there are facts about Martin Luther King Jr. that are being suppressed by the King Center.  It is widely known that King was not a perfect man. However, the terms used into that video were very much  bigoted and I simply did not want to be perceived as someone who supports such things.

So, it’s gone.

Setting the record straight about Unions and the Civil Rights Movement

I notice with a bit of sadness that NeoConservative Blogger Glenn Reynolds AKA InstaPundit has taken to outright lying about the Unions and the Civil Right movement.

Allow me to point this out to Glenn and anyone else who happens to read Glenn Reynold’s blog.

This is from the UAW Region 8 Website’s entry about Walter Reuther:

The rights of all people was another battle that found Walter Reuther on the frontlines. In 1959 he met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the two became fast friends. While some labor organizations were slow to come on board with the Civil Rights movement, President Walter Reuther committed the UAW’s help up front. Reuther joined Dr. King on many of his marches and gave an address to the crowd to open the historic “march to Selma.” Again he joined Dr. King to protest in Birmingham as the crowd was met with fire hoses and police dogs. It was in fact Reuther who bailed King out of jail following the demonstration.

In 1963 Dr. King felt the time was right to take their message to the national stage and became planning a march on Washington. However, being the methodical thinker that he was, King decided to hold a march in Detroit to test the waters before going to Washington. The “Walk to Freedom March” was organized from an office at the UAW’s headquarters Solidarity House, with space donated by Walter Reuther. Dr. King also planned the March of Washington from the same office.

During the March on Washington, Walter Reuther was the only Caucasian to speak from the podium that day. Afterwards, one of Reuther’s aides overheard two ladies backstage discussing who he was. One asked the other is she knew him, to which the reply came “that is Walter Reuther, and he is as good a man as Dr. King.” It is said that Reuther always considered that statement a great complement.

President Reuther knew that education was the key to social improvement and late in his life he dedicated much of his time to that cause. His final achievement was building the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center (better known as Black Lake) in northern Michigan. The visionincluded classrooms and facilities so UAW members could assemble and be educated on the issues of the day. Reuther took an extreme interest in the project, even personally decided which trees would be saved in the construction. The center rivals anything of its kind in terms of design and purpose. On May 09, 1970 Walter and May Reuther, Architect Oscar Stonorov and their pilot were on their way to view the completed facility just prior to the official opening. Their plane went down in a rainstorm near Pellston, Michigan.

Walter Reuther is quoted as saying “There is no greater calling than to serve your fellow man. There is no greater contribution than to help the weak. There is no greater satisfaction than to have done it well.” If this is the case, then Walter Reuther must have surely died a satisfied man. His contributions to working class people the world over should never be forgotten. Reuther knew that social justice is at the heart of everything that organized labor stands for and his legacy is an inspiration to all those who continue his work today.

So much for that little talking point, eh Glenn? 🙄

This is my problem with the NeoCon right; they just cannot tell the truth about anything related to blacks, unions and foreign policy.  Which is why I simply will not vote for them, at all. 😡

I do not support the politics of the likes of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson; but I also do not support the lying idiocy of the likes of Glenn Reynolds.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday 2012

There is not much more than I can really say about the man who simply believed that freedom applied to all.  Most of it has been written by those who are better educated, and write better than I ever will.  All I can truly say, is that Martin Luther King Jr’s commandment to those fighting for freedom to “Stand up for what you believe in,” in 2012 should be our mandate.  As it has been observed by Martin Luther King Jr’s niece, he was a registered Republican and would be considered a social Conservative today.

In 2006, after seeing President’s George W. Bush pathetic handling of the Iraq War, I started a blog called “The Populist”— mainly because I was tired of yelling back at the TV.  On December 21, 2007 my blog was hacked and on December 30, 2007, I started “Political Byline” with the idea that neither of these political parties were political or moral absolutes.

For six long years, I stood for what I felt was right; I made enemies, some of which hate the ground that I walk on today.  I could quite honestly care less.  Because frankly, as the lyric of Steve Camp says in “Judgment Begins in the House of God”, “Sometimes you’ll stand alone to live a life that’s true.” I have, in my day stood for what I simply thought was right.  Sometimes, I stood along with the rational people who stood against injustice; and sometimes, I stood alone.  I have been doing that for 29 years now, on that day —- June 7, 1982 — 29 years ago, I took a stand for the one who died on the cross for my sins, — and so, I think I know a little bit about fighting.

On October 31, 2011, my old blog “Political Byline” had some problems with the hosting provider and seeing that Barack Obama announced that the war in Iraq was, for the most part, over.  I decided that the blog’s original purpose had been fulfilled and I pulled the blog.  I had originally planned to hang it up and quit.  However, there were people e-mailing me, asking, “Where is the blog?” and “Why did you quit?”

On December 31, 2011, I bought some hosting from a very nice person named Paul in Florida.  He is a Ron Paul fan, but I will not hold it against him.  I spent $120.00 for a year’s worth of hosting, with any luck; I will make business out of it.  I also brought the old blog back up and imported the Blogspot site to this domain, thoughtsnadrantings.com.  This blog, Thought and Rantings is simply a continuation of the old blog.  I am going to try to much better on this blog than I did on the other.  I will try to avoid conflict and ignore my detractors.  I also hope to blog about policy and less about other people.  I hate having to rip on the President constantly.

However, I will continue to keep whoever is in the White House honest, Republican Party or Democratic Party.  There will be times when I will simply disagree with the Right.  There will be also times when I sharply disagree with the left.  Sometimes, standing for what one feels is right, goes well beyond partisan politics.

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy should be done, by carrying on his vision — of standing for the principles that fueled his campaign for liberty.  This is what I hope to do this year in 2012 with this blog.