Martin Luther King, Jr.

[John Scott]

Though his public language was guarded, so as to avoid being linked to communism by his political enemies, in private he sometimes spoke of his support for democratic socialism. In one speech, he stated that "something is wrong with capitalism" and claimed, "There must be a better distribution of wealth, and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."[88]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

[John A Roark]

My father, a bit of a reactionary himself, used to call the guy 'Martin Lucifer Coon.'
To me, he's a non-entity. Worm food, like the Kennedys.

[Tom Palven]

To me heroes don't get any bigger than Martin Luther King. He was pelted with stones and bottles and kept on marching, knowing that he could be shot at any time. He probably was pro-communist, but with good reason. Communists overthrew the Czar in Russia, while the US supported royalty and serfdom. The CIA aided the Belgians in murdering the democratically elected Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, supported French colonialism in Vietnam, supported the apartheid government of South Africa while the Russians aided the huge indigenous majority, until it became politically untenable to do so, overthrew the democratically elected Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, fought to retain dictators in South and Central America, and so on. While the communists were wrong about the wonders of the commune, at least their hearts were in the right place.

[John Scott]

To me heroes don't get any bigger than Martin Luther King. He was pelted with stones and bottles and kept on marching, knowing that he could be shot at any time. He probably was pro-communist, but with good reason. Communists overthrew the Czar in Russia, while the US supported royalty and serfdom. The CIA aided the Belgians in murdering the democratically elected Patrice Lamumba in the Congo, supported French colonialism in Vietnam, supported the apartheid government of South Africa while the Russians aided the huge indigenous majority, until it became politically untenable to do so, overthrew the democratically elected Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran, fought to retain dictators in South and Central America, and so on. While the communists were wrong about the wonders of the commune, at least their hearts were in the right place.

Nobody supports serfdom like communists do.

And, no, I do not think that communists hearts were ever in the right place. When people murder millions of other people in order to impose their will on others, that's not the right place.

[Tom Palven]

Some sources say that so far, with the "shock and awe" bombing and continued invasion that the US Foreign Legion has murdered 1.3 million Iraqis, but still there are many Americans who think that US government's heart is in the right place.

After WW II, the colonial governments in Africa and Asia needed overthrowing as much as the French and Russian Royalty and the Central American dicatatorships needed overthrowing, and the US was on the wrong side in all cases. Recently, the US propaganda machine made a big deal out of "unfair" elections in Iran, but ignored the fact that the CIA and British MI6 overthrew the government of democratically elected Dr. Mohammed Mossedegh of Iran in1953 and installed the Chucky Puppet Shah with Operation Ajax. The Associated Press has totally ignored the fact that Iran at least holds elections while the US enables brutal dictator Hosni Mubarek of Egypt with over a billion US dollars a year, who has promised to hold elections for years, and also supports the the totally undemocratic royal caste systems of the kingdoms of Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco, where the CIA rendered prsisoners for torture, and America's most powerful ally in the Mid East, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, runs a country where women are not allowed to drive cars, among other inequalities.

All of the above was hard for me to accept. I believed what my 5th grade teacher, Don Eddinger, told me about the US being the freest and fairest country in the world which never agressed on it's neighbors and where you could do anything you wanted to as long as you didn't hurt anyone else. I believed what Barry Goldwater said in Conscience of a Conservative when I read it in high school, and I volunteered for the US Navy (my father had been in the navy in WW II) after graduating from college in 1967 to help "fight for democracy" in the Vietnam War. I was disillusioned when I found out later that this was all BS-- that shortly after US independence from England the US went on to play the same game of Empire played for centuries by the Dutch, French, Italians, British, Portuguese, Spanish, and Belgians-- that when England was tied up fighting Napolean in the War of 1812, the "War Hawks" of the South pursuaded Congress to invade Canada, but US forces were repelled at Crysler Farm- "The Battle that Saved Canada". But the US contined with acts of imperialism with the Mexican War and the Spanish American War. Yes, parting with illusions can be painful, but Christ's dictum that "the truth shall make you free" is true, (although in a completely different context). Not having to try to be an apologist for BS is empowering, and frees the mind.