Past and Future History Lessons
I've been reading a lot lately about the Civil Rights Movement because I realize that I didn't know much about it and could learn from the brave activists that came before.
I came across this quote in one of the books, and it struck me as oddly familiar...
“While campaigning, President Kennedy had taken several highly publicized stands in support of the civil rights activists that encouraged black ministers to endorse him from the pulpit the Sunday before election day. This brought out the record black vote that gave Kennedy the narrow margin of victory he needed to win against Richard Nixon.”
Page 87, Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, by Zita Allen, copyright 1996.
How will history books characterize this election 35 years from now?
“While campaigning, President George W. Bush had taken several discreet stands in support of the sanctity of marriage, defined as between a man and a woman, that encouraged middle America minister to endorse him from the pulpit the Sunday before election day. This brought out the record Christian vote that gave Bush the narrow margin of victory he needed to win against John Kerry.”
Page 87, Leaders of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, copyright 2039.
I came across this quote in one of the books, and it struck me as oddly familiar...
“While campaigning, President Kennedy had taken several highly publicized stands in support of the civil rights activists that encouraged black ministers to endorse him from the pulpit the Sunday before election day. This brought out the record black vote that gave Kennedy the narrow margin of victory he needed to win against Richard Nixon.”
Page 87, Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, by Zita Allen, copyright 1996.
How will history books characterize this election 35 years from now?
“While campaigning, President George W. Bush had taken several discreet stands in support of the sanctity of marriage, defined as between a man and a woman, that encouraged middle America minister to endorse him from the pulpit the Sunday before election day. This brought out the record Christian vote that gave Bush the narrow margin of victory he needed to win against John Kerry.”
Page 87, Leaders of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, copyright 2039.
Labels: politics
2 Comments:
Hi Velma,
Thanks for all of the insightful comments and starting this conversation. I am not really ready to post any lengthy comments about my thoughts right now -- still doing a lot of thinking, wondering, reading, trying to make sense of it all. But, I do have some reading to pass along. I have tended over the past few years to steer my study and reading to things that are about solutions and ideas and hope rather than complaining about the current situation.This is not to say that I am not deeply concerned for the future of our planet -- I really am afraid that it will be too late before we figure all of this out. But, I feel like the only thing we can do is keep pushing ahead. Last night I read an article by Julia Butterfly Hill in the East Bay Express that was right along those lines of thought:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/current/news/feature.html
Also, this brief article by Howard Zinn (and Howard Zinn's books are a great for researching revolution and change):
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-09/30zinn.cfm
Just read this article this morning:
http://www.alternet.org/election04/20469/
And, yes, George Lakoff is a genius!
Jen E.
Jen,
Those are great articles. I read the one about Julia a few days ago. Mark had linked to it on his blog www.enews.org/blog. I Love the Howard Zinn article. and I have to keep reading articles like the one from AlterNet. So Thank you! I appreciate your posting.
-Velma
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