Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
In Memory of MLK
Pride, by U2 teaches me how the love of ideology has caused too much death and misery.
How much war, division, and destruction must continue in in the name of love?
In the name of love
What more in the name of love
In the name of love
What more in the name of love—Bono
Let freedom ring—equally to all men and women of every kind, in every way…not hand-picked by divisive agendas that judge us for who we are, but for every single soul that desires to be free.
TheCommonAtheist 
Thank you, Jim. Fifty-one years ago. In ways it seems like centuries. I was 18, and well aware of how much hatred was in the world by then. Assassinations seemed to be the “IN” thing in the USA. If you hated someone, kill them. A lot of people hated Martin Luther King, Jr. He was trying to make America great. Now Trump wants to make America great Again! MLK,J never got a chance to succeed. Why is Trump getting that (choke, barf) chance?
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His time will pass just as all the others. He may be polarizing but he sure is nice to look at… 🍊
Equality now stops at the foot of Christian moral interpretation. It’s “let freedom ring” right up to the edge of those that differ from their ideology.
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Martin was able to go beyond ideology, and that is what scared his opponents. They could not conceive of a world of equality, a world of peace. They needed war and hatred to sustain them.
Well, soon they are going to have their wish, I hope they like the results…
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It’s the idea of our republic that keeps me sane in the face of the forces intent of morphing it into something it was never meant to be. This is my romantic self speaking. Keep up the good fight and all that.
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I have a dream too, and it’s usually bigger ideas that are not even on the table. Why would anything change when most people are grateful it’s not worse and think merely surviving is a blessing?
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You’d think it would be obvious that our institutions are experiments in cohabitation. Our version, in theory, is adaptable by amending to founding documents. That said, the founders were 18th century thinkers that would be amazed with struggles we’re having with their creation. Ideas have no owners only salesmen. All people really want is to be sold. Sell, sell, sell.
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While a bullet may not ring through the air, perhaps something more silent will do the job.
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I was not quite 13 when MLK was assassinated. A few weeks later in my own state, RFK was assassinated – who, by the way, would’ve won the 1968 presidential election and changed the course of history. These were shocking events which ripped much hope from the spirit of decent Americans; and, that is precisely why they happened. But, I had already been jaded by then. Five years earlier, I was sitting in my peaceful 3rd grade classroom when the school principal came in and whispered something to our nice lady teacher. Then, he solemnly walked out. Tears welled-up in her eyes as she tried to regain composure. She stood before us and said that the president had been shot in Dallas and that he died shortly afterwards. The whole class started to cry uncontrollably including myself.
America lost something very precious that fateful day far beyond the life of a single man. It lost the belief that we as a nation could do good things for all people and that we could attain great heights together. It lost the belief that there was something much more important than partisan politics and ideological dogmas. The history which followed – from a rampant “military-industrial complex” warned to us by Ike, to Watergate, to the rise of activist religious fanaticism, to Iran-Contra, to the plague of global corporatism, to the disingenuous Iraq War, and now to a fascist white supremacist occupying the White House – must all be seen from the perspective of November 22, 1963.
For me personally, the terrible events of 1968 didn’t shock me as much as others. I had already lost my innocence. Ever since, I’ve strived to look at the world through objective and dispassionate eyes. I want to see people and things for what they essentially are rather than what I wish them to be. We humans have great capacity for good, there’s no doubt about that. However, we are also capable of doing unspeakable harm. We cannot turn a blind eye to that which we don’t want to see. For if we do, we will be shocked once again… and again, and again, and again.
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Thank you for sharing that here. Heart wrenching.
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Sure, Jim.
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Those very lines went through my head earlier when I realized what the date was.
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No good thoughts today. Not optimistic.
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No? Speechless ol flapdoodle? Never thought I’d see that day. Hehe You probably remember this pretty well. Tragic.
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I do remember. I was stationed/living in Turkey. The late 60s was a time. Mostly of confusion for me. No, I am hopeful, but not optimistic.
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Why do we keep on playing with things that do not work? Love, in my opinion (of course!) is nothing but chimera. It is another invention of the Matrix, just like faith and hope, and no wonder these are linked as the greatest “virtues” in the new testament… “Now these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest is love.” By the company they keep shall we know them???
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Point me to where you are going with the love vs compassion, or what is the alternative. I’ve been dismantling belief, Hope, and faith, but I’m curious Your take on love. WYGTC. Whenever You Get The Chance. Hehe
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Hi Jim. I have an essay available for posting that I wrote, looks like, in 2017. I will blog it on ~burning woman~ and you can read it there, or you can copy it to your computer for reference, whatever. Look for it coming up.
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Thank you kindly. I’m looking forward to a little more erasure
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And here’s a link if anyone else has an interest. http://ixiocali.com/2019/04/05/compassion-in-a-nutshell-an-explanation/
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Thanks for posting the link, Jim. I hope (say what?) it doesn’t cause a big kerfuffle!!!
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I don’t think so nor really care if it does. I am here to learn and everyone has something to contribute. Thanks again.
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Isn’t it odd — and yet, not really — that SERIOUS changers, shakers for humanity, the GOOD in all of us that can be harnessed… are most often killed, assassinated for their vision, love, compassion, guidance to lead the masses out of the pit of darkness? 🤔😥
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Like Roberts comment says, it is intensional to keep the masses uneasy. We have all had our innocence lost by these events, and with it the drive to imagine and make the world awesome. The greatest ideas are shuffled away as pipe dreams, impossible to this world until god comes to save us all from ourselves. I say bullshit! There are much better ways than we have ever tried before, but who will listen when they’ve already forfeited the match. Defeatist attitudes that trickle through the news by those who want to control us.
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This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing!♥️♥️
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You stated — “the love of ideology has caused too much death and misery”
My response — In the case of MLK it would seem the evil of hate was what caused the death and that love over came it in the speech given by Bobby later that day.
https://realitydecoded.blog/2018/02/04/love-is-the-only-solution/
Just a thought
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