Miracle Men and Martyrdom

Shaking the status quo -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
When you look at the violent 1960’s, there are at least five assassinations that stand out:

➢ President Kennedy, 1963
➢ Medgar Evers, 1963
➢ Malcolm X, 1965
➢ Martin Luther King, 1968
➢ Robert Kennedy, 1968

Looking at this list, it’s disturbing that 3 of the 5 were prominent black activists – a couple even predicted their own untimely deaths. The KKK was actually implicated in the death of Evers. There were other “powers that be” who despised the Civil Rights movement (most notably the CIA and the FBI) but they didn’t provably kill anyone. J Edgar Hoover had a major axe to grind against MLK and kept a huge dossier on the civil rights leader.

In Oliver Stone’s JFK, he offered speculation of no less than five groups who loathed the Kennedy’s: the mafia, the KKK, the government of Cuba, the CIA and the KGB. To this day, there are lively discussions about who might have done the killing, if indeed there was a conspiracy. (Refer to my own previous blog, JFK Redux).

What invites all of this morbid speculation is the new popularity of Barack Obama – a photogenic, charming mover who currently stands a good likelihood of being our next President. At a rally yesterday, Obama pulled out his hanky and begged the audience’s pardon while he blew his nose. For this, he received a near ovation. People with this kind of magnetism are frequently seen as threats to the status quo. Black Democratic organizers have recently expressed fears about Obama’s safety for that very reason.

Looking at the 1960’s, our last flirtation with youthful, Democratic optimism, there is reason for concern. The Kennedy-hating groups listed above have (for the most part) lessened influence nowadays and collective xenophobia is certainly less than it was in 1968, but who can say for sure? Robert Kennedy was on a trajectory to be our President in 1968, and some group or groups felt strongly enough to take him out.

This is no dig against all Republicans – by and large a law-abiding group, but the forces of conservatism are still at work. Time “hath shown” that conservatives on a tear will stop at nothing to achieve an objective. Witness how the Neocons invaded Iraq in 2003; witness how Bob Perry and Karl Rove turned John Kerry’s Viet Nam heroism into a strong negative in 2004. Provide a “solid” enough motive, and supporting actions follow. It may be a character assassination if not capping somebody with a gun. If I were Obama, I’d take some extra precautions especially in the South. Many people have likened the whole 2008 race to the 60’s. Let’s keep the positive aspects of that comparison and lose the negative aspects of it this time around.


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