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;void(0)) 1968 began with President Johnson announcing that he would not seek re-election in the upcoming presidential race. The Viet Nam War and the Long Hot Summers at home started to take its toll on the beleaguered Administration. At the same time, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., the recognized “Moral Leader of America” was preparing his Poor People’s Campaign for the coming summer. New York Senator Robert Kennedy was viewed by many as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency – just five years after his older brother’s assassination. Then calamity reared its ugly head. On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Robert Kennedy was the first public figure to deliver a heart wrenching tribute to the nation about his colleague in peace. Still, the inner cities around the nation – the Nation’s Capital included – erupted into riots. Two months later Robert Kennedy was himself assassinated right after winning the all-important California Primary. The Democratic Convention in Chicago deteriorated into mass chaos. Out of that rubble emerged a slowly disintegrating Democratic Party that not regain its former stature to this day. Richard Milhaus Nixon won the presidency in November on the Law and Order Platform and his Administration began the process – almost in Orwellian fashion – of reversing almost all vestiges of the Civil Rights Movement. The 1979s was the decade of inflation brought on by $130 billion dollars spent directly on the Viet Nam War alone. However, through clever media manipulation which highlighted “Welfare Cheats” the public was made to believe that the Great Society Programs of the 60s were to blame for high prices and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Like the Reconstruction Era of the 1870s politicians went to the familiar work of blaming the victims. Funding for programs that helped the poor and discriminated were cut and life for all Americans grew more strained. The term Latch Key children became part of the lexicon, as two-paycheck households became a necessity. The cost of living skyrocketed. The inner cities deteriorated before our very eyes and Homelessness became a common aspect of the big city landscape. Americans retreated to purely personal preoccupations. With little hope of improving their lives in any of the ways that matter, they turned inward to fads and cults. The “pet rock” became a commodity. Hard driving disco music and dancing replaced the melodic “Peace Songs” of poets like Bob Dylan, Curtis Mayfield, Richie Havens, and Joan Baez. The white middle class college students who once followed Dr. King’s message in the ‘60s were being recruited right off the college campuses for careers in High Finance (from Hippies to Yuppies). Black students were being courted by ROTC for high paying military careers. In the ghettoes there was a reemergence of gangs like the Crips and Bloods. By the mid-70s the Bakke Decision and Proposition 13 provided legal fuel for challenges to the Civil Rights Acts of the mid-60s. In a nation growing more and more in need of spiritual guidance moral leadership was sought in the new conservative televangelists - all of whom were conspicuously absent when Dr. King and the vast coalition of international religious leaders came together to speak out for universal PEACE and LOVE. Coretta Scott King bore witness to all of this and more than we have room to discuss here. The announcement of her death, which comes so closely on the heels of Ms. Rosa Parks, gives those of us who remember, pause to think. Ms. King maintained her calm and composure while her family’s life was constantly being terrorized in the 1950’s. She marched side by side with her husband throughout the demonstrations of the 60’s. The world watched as she sat stoically, cradling her small child in her arms at her husband’s funeral. Ms. King’s greatest challenge came during the Seventies when certain forces went to work launching a slanderous campaign defaming her husband and his movement. She stood tall and continued raising her children and continuing the work that she and her husband sacrificed so much for. Although her activities were rarely covered by the media she remained active giving talks around the globe, speaking out against South Africa’s racist regime and playing a major role in securing the freedom of Nelson Mandela. Here at home she was very active in launching the Martin Luther King Birthday project and the development of the Center for Nonviolence. While we listen to our president invoke the common shibboleths of war in his State of the Union speech, and we receive the news of another incident of workplace carnage on the West Coast we are mindful that this may be a case of history repeating itself, but this time with an awesome vengeance. Her message and the message of the true heroes of that era ring true more heavily today than ever before. In a speech that she heroically gave in Memphis, Tennessee, just a couple of days after her husband’s funeral she said: “How many men must die before we can have a free and true and peaceful society? How long will it take? If we can catch the spirit, which I believe, and the true meaning of this experience, I believe that this nation can be transformed into a society of love, of justice, peace and brotherhood where all men can really be brothers.” With this in mind Coretta Scott King may now take her place along with her husband, and all of those prophets of peace that come along once in a while to remind us that war is not the answer and love truly conquers all. Oh yeah, don't forget your autographed copy of “The Ackee Chronicles”. Tony VanSluytman - the Author  Newsletter Directory The Aton Project - Home Page Tony VanSluytman info Tony VanSluytman - the Author | Return Home | The BOOK DOCTOR | The BANYON NETWORK | The Banyon Buzz Newsletters | The Aton Project Newsletters | Contact Us | |
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