Submitted by Terence Blackett

Running through the dark center of American history there is a vivid red thread of tragedy… – Bruce Catton

In August 1955, a [14] year old Black boy whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till, a teen from Chicago, didn’t understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South until three days later, when two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and then shot him in the head. Although his killers were arrested and charged with murder, they were both acquitted quickly by an all-white, all-male jury. Shortly afterwards, the defendants sold their story, including a detailed account of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Till’s death was the spark that helped mobilize the Civil Rights Movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery bus boycott began… (Cited from: – DEATH OF INNOCENCE. The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America” written by Mamie Till – Mobley & Christopher Benson – published by Random House Publishing Group, NY, © 2003).

History was to repeat itself but this time on a cool spring evening, April 4^th 1968 @ 6:01 PM, a “lone wolf” assassin, alleged and purported to be James Earl Ray took aim and fired a single shot which rang out across the balcony of the room of where Dr. Martin Luther King was standing at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. Laying sprawled and splattered out on the balcony’s floor, covered in a pool of blood splutter and with a gaping wound covering a large portion of his jaw and neck was this great man who had spent [13] years of his life dedicated to non-violent protest, peaceful resistance and orderly civil disobedience – now lay murdered from a sniper’s bullet.

What was remarkable is that adjacent to the rooming house in which James Earl Ray was apparently staying, was the fire station where police officers were stationed keeping Dr. King under constant surveillance using papered-over windows with peepholes cut out as the agents watched while Martin Luther King was shot.

Violence, mayhem and bedlam ensued. Those who were once non-violent erupted into a psychotic frenzy at the death of this Civil Rights leader. In seminal outrage to Dr. King’s murder, swarms of Black folks took to the streets across America in a massive tidal wave of riots and violence (which sounds only too familiar today). America was now in a state of serious emergency, a moral panic of epic proportions – a crisis which could have resulted in social fragmentation, mass anarchy and possible Civil War.

Like Jerusalem of old when Jesus pronounced those fatal words against that city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem – city that kills the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing… now your house is left to you desolate.” America’s cup of iniquity was now full to overflow and its tipping point had come and without change her house would too be eventually left desolate.

So almost [5] decade on and a $120 million later, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is about to be unveiled on a [4] acre plot on the edge of Washington’s Tidal Basin where will stand an imposing 30 ft tall granite statue of this great leader; the first person who’s not a president to be honored with a major memorial on the Mall – surrounded by monuments and memorials dedicated to presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

It was 48 years ago, when the Lincoln Memorial became the setting and backdrop for Dr. King’s most famous speech, “I HAVE A DREAM” – a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement but more importantly in the history of America’s long running battles to suppress peoples of color, political and ideological dissidents and those who did not see eye to eye with her imperialist, Jesuitical (Freemasonry) aims.

But many are asking whether this monument at this point in time will make any difference to the social fabric of American society given her past and the scars of genocide against the native American peoples; the evils of slavery, Jim Crow laws, social & economic apartheid; the fuelling of unjust wars in the name of capitalism – yet cloaked in the sinister language of democracy but moreover, her imperialist aims to promote American culture to every nook and cranny of the world with almost devastating repercussions based on virulent immorality and devilish decadence.

So on Sunday 28^th August, 2011 the official opening will be beamed around the world led by America’s 1^st Black president amidst scenes of pomp and ceremony; glitz, and glamour but with an over-awed sense of heightened sentimentality and emotional engineering orchestrated as a feel good factor for a country in socioeconomic crisis and as a form of appeasement for the ills of the past.

But will anything truly change after the “pixy” dust settles and the CO2 clears? Most believe that it will still be business as usual. The profoundly structural moral issues will continue to go unheeded because of the blindness of American leadership or the sheer scant disregard and psychopathic denial entrenched within the body of American society.

Will a cold, lifeless statue provide direction for a world empire on its knees? Or does America need to be reminded of the moral path she has left to travel down a road that leads to ultimate perdition?

Dr. King’s legacy provides answers to these questions taken from as far back as 1964 in a preface to his book “STRENGTH TO LOVE” – where he opines, “In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race. Indeed, we live in a day of grave crisis…”

These few words hold such pertinent application as this is the true condition of things today in America and like a cancerous infection metastasizes around the world. Yet there are some who want us to believe (through obfuscation) that there’s peace and safety and that all is well. Surely, if the world was teeter-tottering back then – what about now? How far down the road are we in this apocalyptic endgame?

Again Dr. King answers the cynics and deniers in 2011 with these words from an “imaginary” letter from the pen of the Apostle Paul where he writes: “America, I wonder whether your moral and spiritual progress has been commensurate with your scientific progress. It appears to me that your moral progress lags behind your scientific progress, your mentality outdistances your morality, and your civilization outshines your culture. How much of your modern life can be summarized in the words of your poet Thoreau: ‘Improved means to an unimproved end.’ Through your scientific genius you have made of the world a neighbourhood, but you have failed to employ your moral and spiritual genius to make of it a brotherhood. So, America, the atomic bomb you have to fear today is not merely that deadly weapon which can be dropped from an aeroplane on the heads of millions of people, but that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts of men, capable of exploding into the most staggering hate and the most devastating selfishness…”

“I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: ‘Everybody is doing it, so it must be alright.’ For many of you morality merely reflects group consensus… You have unconsciously come to believe that what is right is determined by Gallup polls…”

“I understand that you have an economic system in America known as capitalism, through which you have accomplished wonders. You have become the richest nation in the world, and you have built the greatest system of production that history has ever known. All of this is marvellous. But, Americans, there is a danger that you will misuse your capitalism. I still contend that the love of money is the root of all evil and may cause a man to become a gross materialist. I am afraid that many among you are more concerned in making money than in accumulating spiritual treasure…”

“The misuse of capitalism may also lead to tragic exploitation. This has so often happened in your nation. I am told that one-tenth of 1% of the population controls more than 40% of the wealth. America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses and given luxuries to the classes? If you are to be a truly Christian nation, you must solve this problem… You must use your powerful economic resources to eliminate poverty from the earth. God never intended on people to live in superfluous and inordinate wealth, while others know only deadening poverty…” These are Dr. King’s cautions to America!

Powerful words of censure! But who will cite them on this auspicious Memorial Day?

So as we await the Sunday celebrations and the trumpeting of the LEGACY* of Dr. King taking full flight with every shade of human being latching on to this iconic figure (in praise and adoration) in the hope of getting their [15] minutes of “feel-good” in the spotlight and in the throes of all the emotions, tears and solemn moments – what will be overlooked is the true message of this great human being as was cited above.

Let us close with the final words of unquestionably the greatest leader and moral figure of the 20^th century: “In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away; new systems of justice and equality are being born. In a real sense this is a great time to be alive. Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easy-going optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark, confused world the KINGDOM* OF GOD may yet reign in the hearts of men.”

Sadly, unveiling a monument to Dr. King will do precious little if the “STONE” of hope remain the “Stone” which the builders reject – (who is Jesus Christ, our Lord & Saviour) – otherwise, what America will be left with is a “MOUNTAIN” of despair as their worst fears will no doubt be realized very soon. If men continue to squander real opportunities to make that necessary change – surely the limits of forbearance will eventually run out.

Until then, we wait patiently for that change to come!!!