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Comments
by Witt Ryatt
I promise, I was
going to be good. I was going to try and avoid writing this kind
of story, but I just cannot let this one slip by.
Have I ever told you that I admire the thoughts to
Doctor Martin Luther King? The man was an eloquent, and very intelligent
speaker. He knew how to craft a thought into a sermon that would
inspire an entire generation.
That said, I have no problem with the congress buying
his personal papers. Even though he wasn't an elected official, he
was a force in American politics, so these momentos and effects are worthy
of preservation.
The question is, just how much should be paid?
One figure that's been slyly offered up is $20-million. That's USDollars.
That's a whole bunch of money.
One so-called historical expert says this is too good
to pass up. He's got a real drool on for these papers. But
if you ask David Garrow, an Emory University professor who won a Pulitzer
Prize for authoring Dr. King's biography, he'll tell you the collection
has little research value, and not worth anything of the sort.
But why should we ax him anyway? Chances are,
he knows nothing of the black condition, and how the black man has suffered
at the hand of the man.
Let's ask the Honorable Rep. James Clyburn of South
Carolina, the politician who proposed that the American people spend $20,000,000
in the first place. Let's see, we've got his quote around here somewhere.
"If we don't do this purchase, I envision some wealthy
white family going to an auction house, getting the papers, and then selling
them back to this same government 20 years from now for $100 million,"
Yep, that's it. Officially sanctioned racism
rears it's ugly head once again. This man is a public servant.
He is a representitive of every man, woman and child in his district.
Everyone, whether they have a skin tone he approves of or not.
Yet Representive Clyburn, who coincidentally is black,feels
no shame or harm in publicly flaunting his racism. Come on
people, he's a black man, there's no way he can be a racist, so he can
say anything he wants to.
I'd just like to conclude this sorry chapter by infomring
United States Rep. Clyburn that his worst fears of a white family buying
the papers could come true anyway...if the collection becomes part of the
Library of Congress archives, not just one white family, but millions of
white families will have paid for them. Along with millions of Latino,
Vietnamese, Chinese, and black familes.
Proving once again that just because you've got an
office on Capitol Hill it doesn't mean you're smart enough to speak in
public. |
