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In reply to the discussion: Non-violent tactics and moral high-ground [View all]Orrex
(63,333 posts)24. Why did he maintain an arsenal? For hunting?
Why did he apply for a CCL? Peer pressure? You imagine that he would never have used these guns, but that's absurd on its face. Far from disrespecting the man, I honor him for maintaining a realistic awareness of the world.
On Martin Luther King Jr.'s attitude about weapons...
If you look at the early period of his leadership in the civil rights movement, particularly the period of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, his household, as one person noted, was an arsenal, with guns all over the place. William Worthy, who was a journalist...tried to sit down in an armchair in Martin King's house and was warned by Bayard Rustin, who was with him, that he was about to sit down on a couple of guns. King was a man of the South, after all, and he responded to terrorism, he responded to violence the way most people in the South would be inclined to respond. So when the Klan...bombed his house in 1956, he went to the sheriff's office and applied for a gun permit to carry a concealed weapon. Now, he didn't get the permit...but Martin King always acknowledged if you read his writings the right to self-defense, armed self-defense.
From 'Guns Kept People Alive' During The Civil Rights Movement
If you look at the early period of his leadership in the civil rights movement, particularly the period of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, his household, as one person noted, was an arsenal, with guns all over the place. William Worthy, who was a journalist...tried to sit down in an armchair in Martin King's house and was warned by Bayard Rustin, who was with him, that he was about to sit down on a couple of guns. King was a man of the South, after all, and he responded to terrorism, he responded to violence the way most people in the South would be inclined to respond. So when the Klan...bombed his house in 1956, he went to the sheriff's office and applied for a gun permit to carry a concealed weapon. Now, he didn't get the permit...but Martin King always acknowledged if you read his writings the right to self-defense, armed self-defense.
Please point me to the episode in which 5 million Indians killed themselves to shame the British. Not "acted without violence" but actually and explicitly committed suicide by the millions. Did I miss that part of the book?
If you are suggesting that Ghandi has no business instructing anyone in morality, you are bonkers.
Fun fact: He also slept naked beside his young grand-niece. I wonder how would that fly if one of today's moral leaders tried it?
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No. They didn't do the same thing. If, when 100 nazis show up, we show up with 5000, and
Squinch
Aug 2017
#5
Showing up with 65,853,516 against their 62,984,825 put a Nazi sympathizer in the Whitehouse
Orrex
Aug 2017
#12
You keep saying that King was not non-violent. He never acted against his non-violence message.
Squinch
Aug 2017
#21
Did Dr. King ever shoot anyone? Did he ever stray from his message of non-violence?
Squinch
Aug 2017
#26
What you are describing about the image of liberals is a good description of the image of
Squinch
Aug 2017
#6
Did he ever violently defend himself? Did he pull one of those guns in Selma? Did they
Squinch
Aug 2017
#15
To quote Stokely Carmichael, Nonviolence only works if your enemy has a conscience.
backscatter712
Aug 2017
#11
Who turned the tide? Was it Charmichael or King? There is no question that violence is justified
Squinch
Aug 2017
#17