How to Trash A Man's Accomplishments

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200701/CUL20070117b.html
from JoeUser Forums

Apparently the Social Action and Leadership School for Activists (SALSA) likes to trash the deeds and memory of great men.  Just Monday they likened Martin Luther King to Robert Mugabe.  There is no question that MLK was no saint.  It is hard to be a mortal man and be perfect.  But he had a vision - a dream - that America does try to emulate in many ways today.  And like another great man, Mahatma Ghandi, he wanted to enact social change through peaceful means, and not through violent upheaval.

But according to Salsa, he is like Mugabe - the raper of Zimbabwe.  Who turned a prosperous country with race problems - into a basket case where all races are indeed equal - dirt poor.  Except for Mugabe and his ilk.  Who feed on the country like a leech feeds on its host.

Comparing King to Mugabe would be akin to comparing Truman to Mussolini.  Hey!  They both rebuilt countries that had been devastated and got people back to work (Truman - Western Europe, Mussolini - Italy).  But that would be like saying that oatmeal and fillet mignon are both food.  Sure.  But a world apart.  Mugabe tried to redistribute the wealth (and like most thugs, keep his percentage of all transactions) through often violent means and instead destroyed it.  King tried to force America to accept the belief that "All men are created equal" through the force of peaceful protest and holding a mirror to the face of a nation that had not really looked into one in a long time.

No, Salsa, King is not a demented thug who tried to destroy America in order to gain equality for all peoples.  He wanted to build America up to a great nation where all people were equal.  Mugabe decided the easiest way to make all people equal was to bring them all down to the lowest common denominator.  And you Salsa are a bunch of morons for even suggesting a connection.

3,495 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
excellent piece. it is becoming all too common to try to "link" good people to the vile that troll our planet thru weak analogies and spin. glad ya weren't fooled by it this time:)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Good article. "Obviously" Mugabe's policies have failed only because he is so misunderstood. Not. Here's a link to the CIA World Factbook showing how he's single-handedly managed to increase the inflation rate of Zimbabwe to the highest in the world.

WWW Link
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

it is becoming all too common to try to "link" good people to the vile that troll our planet thru weak analogies and spin.

It is one thing to link the living  - the living can defend themselves.  But to drag MLK into the crap of Zimbabwe is just beneath contempt!  Comparing King to Mandela (not a great choice but at least better) would be one thing.  But Mandela is to Mugabe as Churchill is to Hitler.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

"Obviously" Mugabe's policies have failed only because he is so misunderstood. Not.

Yea, I am sure the starving Zimbabweans would "agree" he is misunderstood.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sorry about the link, https linking doesn't seem to work. Copy this into you browser instead:

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2092rank.html
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sorry about the link, https linking doesn't seem to work. Copy this into you browser instead:


hey, at least they can say "We are not as bad as Weimar Germany".   

WWW Link
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
wow
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Mussolini had his head cut off and paraded around Italy, didn't he?...I think I heard that somewhere...

Anywho, these people are named for sauce...so I really wouldn't take anything they said at face value. As you say...these people are morons.

~Zoo
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top

these people are named for sauce...

But I use to like the sauce!

Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sounds like a bunch of idiots with their own agenda. With an acronym like SALSA, I'm sure they're a bunch of dips anyway.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

With an acronym like SALSA, I'm sure they're a bunch of dips anyway.

You get the pun of the year award! *Groan* 

Good one!

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Almost missed this one Doc. You know my feelings on Mugabe. Comrade Robert is only comparable with Idi Amin. He is a sick tyrant with a destructive bent.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
To Zoo:By the way, Mussolini was hanged in a public square in Milan. His body was on view to all and sundry but I know of no reference that alludes to his beheading.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top

You know my feelings on Mugabe.

I do indeed.  And a lot of what I know about the man has come from reading your blogs and links.  Africa is not a top of the mind awareness for most Americans, so I am grateful for having the opportunity to read others and their views, and then to search deeper.

Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
What's funny is, I'm not a huge fan of MLK. Sure, he did a lot for civil rights, but so did many others who didn't get near the recognition. It wasn't until "Ghosts of Mississippi", for instance, that most Americans even knew who Medgar Evers WAS. And Evers, too, gave his life for the cause. And aspects of King's life were questionable.

BUT, all of that aside, King does not deserve the stain of being equated with bigots like Mugabe.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
BUT, all of that aside, King does not deserve the stain of being equated with bigots like Mugabe.


I agree totally. It was les his accomplishments and more him being a martyr that makes him the symbol of the civil rights movement. I know he was no saint, just a symbol. But he was no sinner like Mugabe either. He did do some good, and his intentions were noble. And that is the reason he should be honored, not the fact that we will soon have a Saint Martin.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
it is becoming all too common to try to "link" good people to the vile that troll our planet thru weak analogies and spin.


This is so true. Everytime you turn on some political talk show some yahoo is comparing someone to Hitler. There was only one Hitler and I don't think anyone they are comparing to him even come close.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
not the fact that we will soon have a Saint Martin.

he'd have a hard time becoming a recognized saint since he wasn't catholic.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
There was only one Hitler and I don't think anyone they are comparing to him even come close.


I wont go that far. The only difference between Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler was in who they killed. But then you are correct in inferring that the constant comparison tends to lessen the magnitude of the evil of the men.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
he'd have a hard time becoming a recognized saint since he wasn't catholic.


Nah! We accept all saintly people.
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
Nah! We accept all saintly people.


lol...has he gotten his 3 miracles?

anyway,,,this actually got me thinkin....how many black saints are there? i think i got a lil research to do,,,ttyl:)
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
how many black saints are there?


Besides the ones on the football team, probably very few.

~Zoo
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
Besides the ones on the football team, probably very few.


  

If you think in terms of Americans, that would be correct. But remember that the Catholic Church is big in Africa, and there are a lot of blacks there. I would suspect there are more than a few, but I only know of a couple.
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
If you think in terms of Americans, that would be correct. But remember that the Catholic Church is big in Africa, and there are a lot of blacks there. I would suspect there are more than a few, but I only know of a couple.


there are some, and yes, primarily african. the catholic website only had a "partial list" which i thought strange...but anywho...

i just couldn't remember any black saints even being mentioned from my catholic upbringing (catholic grade school, catholic university, et al...)or ever seeing a statue of one in the multitude of catholic churches i had been to over the years.