"They said to one another, "Behold. Here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him and we shall see what will become of his dreams."
Genesis 37:19,20
Honest engine...I planned on throwing a Martin Luther King Day party this year. Unfortunately that would have required more money and time (mostly money) than I had so I aborted that plan and read books. Also...it turned out I worked a couple hours so...you know.
But the idea for a party came into my head when I was watching Talk To Me, the movie where an on-fire Don Cheadle plays legendary DJ Petey Greene. Somehow this film came and went with very little fanfare which I don't understand but that's another story. ANYWAY...there is a portion of the film about King's assassination and a couple thinks struck me about it. The first was how incredibly moved everyone was. Now I realize that this was a movie and everyone shows more emotion in movies than they do in real life, but I'd never considered the idea of so many people being moved to tears. I can't remember the death of any public individual in my lifetime that had this type of an effect on people (aside from maybe Princess Di...but that's England.)
The second thing I REALLY liked. The night after MLK was assassinated James Brown came to Washington on a whim and through a free concert. And the crowd came and they took all their bottled up sadness, confusion, and rage and they threw a motherfuckin' party! And that made me say...YES! Here, in the face of absolute evil, the cold-blooded killing of a man who dedicated his life to peace and love and the furthering of human society, they said laughed, drank, danced, and said "Fuck You" to an evil world. Party till the system dies!
So anyway...I mentioned the books. One of them is I May Not Get There With You by Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson is one of my favorite writers and in this book he attempts to rescue King's image from a society that tries to bottle him up into one short speech. The other is King's autobiography. I have enjoyed both so far. Unfortunately I am not far enough along in either one to comment a whole lot more than that but be on the lookout for more from me.
Anyway...back to class in the morning. Have a nice night everyone...
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2 comments:
What do you think, please, of Obadiah Shoher's interpretation of the story? (here: samsonblinded.org/blog/genesis-37.htm ) He takes the text literally to prove that the brothers played a practical joke on Yosef rather than intended to murder him or sell him into slavery. His argument seems fairly strong to me, but I'd like to hear other opinions.
The title of that book is incredible. I want to read it now.
Also, the parties will bring the system down. I once interviewed a circus artist that told me "They'll keep on throwing bombs but we will keep on throwing balls in the air and playing with toys and things and even if they do not understand, we will keep on doing it until they are too tired to throw more bombs"
As naive as that logic is, I believe in that, strongly.
We need to stop killing our heroes.
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