Prime's Worm Hole : So as not to offend

Monday, January 17, 2011

So as not to offend

Today all across America, there were celebrations commemorating and celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One such commemoration occurred on the state house steps in Columbia South Carolina, where the NAACP used the holiday to not only commemorate the King holiday, but they also utilized the holiday to march to the state house steps to protest the continued presence of the Confederate flag being flown on state property at the Confederate Memorial.
Rally draws 1,200 to State House

Marchers once again took on the Confederate flag during Monday’s King Day at the Dome rally, but they also spoke out against the 150th anniversary of South Carolina’s secession and legislative proposals to cut state spending on education and pass tougher anti-illegal immigration laws.

On a side note, something else occurred on the state house steps of South Carolina today. Something that seems to have completely escaped the notice of the majority of media in America today. It too was a part of the protest today and it was a backdrop to the speakers present to deliver their speeches as part of the NAACP protest. But no one seems to have taken much notice of it and it seems to have been completely overlooked by most everyone in the media involved in covering the protest in South Carolina today.

See if you can spot what occurred.

Flanked by (L)Edward Dubose and (R) Dr. Lonnie Randolph, Jr., Rev. William Barber, III instructs the crowd to insist and continue to fight until South Carolina takes down the Confederate flag from the State House grounds. Hundreds of people attended the prayer service, march and rally at the State House, Monday morning at the annual King Day at the Dome event. (photos by Kim Kim Foster-Tobin kkfoster@thestate.com) – Kim Kim Foster-Tobin/kkfoster@th/The State

Perhaps a different angle will help... This view was taken from behind the speakers podium.

In case you are having trouble figuring it out, here is the caption for the last photograph.

The monument of George Washington was concealed from the crowd during the King Day at the Dome rally. Hundreds of people attended the prayer service, march and rally at the State House, Monday morning at the annual King Day at the Dome event. (photos by Kim Kim Foster-Tobin kkfoster@thestate.com) – Kim Kim Foster-Tobin/kkfoster@th/The State

Here is another photo taken from the front at the protest today, showing the statue completely cloaked in a black fabric covered box behind the speakers podium.

The information that I have received from someone who was there today at the South Carolina King day celebration/protest, is that the statue of George Washington was covered up today, "so as not to offend anyone" attending the King day celebration on the state house steps.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening trying to locate media photographs of today's events, having been previously informed of the incident in a facebook posting. "The State" newspaper in Columbia SC is the only media outlet that can presently be located on the internet, that even noted the covering of the statue or mentioned it, or published photographs of the incident for that matter.

The bottom line, A statue of the father of this nation is boxed up and draped in black, so as not to offend people? At a celebration commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.? At a protest rally sponsored by the NAACP? And no one in national media notices or questions why? And no one in media (save one local newspaper) takes any notice or exception to it?

Those are just some of the questions that came to my mind this afternoon. I wonder if anyone else found today's actions by the NAACP questionable. I certainly hope so. The information and photos have been forwarded to several national and regional media outlets. I guess we will see what if any notice is taken after the fact.

No comments:

Prime's Worm hole

This is a place for me to muse about the issues that affect our world. My world and my country and my life in particular. I can say what I want to here and those who may stumble across my musings, are welcome to comment,or not. America is under siege. Everything this nation has ever represented, is now being torn asunder and crushed by the onslaught of egalitarian socialism. All morals and social values have been devolved into the belief that systemic racism, is the only underlying cause or reason for any societal ills in America. And that representation, is nothing but a Trojan Horse argument. A means of getting the egalitarian camel's nose into the tent. And now that it has been inserted? There is mayhem and anarchy and burning and looting all across America. And the only questions that remains to be asked and answered? Are these. When is enough enough and when will the American people call full stop and take the law into their own hands, to repel this socialist based attack on the Constitution and our personal freedoms.

Thinking

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then -- just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.
Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax", I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me and finally I was thinking all the time.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

"Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make that much money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled
I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step...I joined the Democratic Party

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If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

Captain Michael O'Donnell was lost in Cambodia on March 24 1970, while flying a UH1 rescue helicopter, trying to rescue an eight man LRRP team under attack in Cambodia. He was listed as MIA along with the eight he had attempted to rescue after his UH1 Huey was shot down by enemy fire. The official military report listed the eight as shot down 'non survivable' and 'non recoverable.'

Michael O'Donnell was submitted for the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions that day. He was awarded the Distinguished flying cross, the Bronze Star, The Air Medal and The Purple Heart and he was promoted to the rank of Major (posthumously).

In 1978 he was officially listed as KIA by the Department of Defense.

A little about the philosophy of the author

The Borg Conspiracy is one man's purely pedestrian thoughts, independent musings and frequently cheeky commentaries...Mixed with an abundance of patriotism, love of God, and love of country.

My thoughts?

In my opinion........in another generation, all that will remain of our once great republic, may be little more than what is left to weather the passage of time in the form of a few obscure and forgotten monuments to the great American experiment.

If America should fail....let it be written as her epitaph.....died by her own hand. The greatest experiment in freedom ever undertaken, lost in the end to the pursuit of the illusion that egalitarian tolerance was more valuable than individual freedom.

Let us be warned.
Franklin, Payne, Jefferson. They all knew the consequences of the lack of vigilance and they tried to warn us. They gave us a document as our guide post. We were to guard it and revere it and use it to guide and govern our future and our posterity.

No one listened.