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MLK: Man, Myth and Legend

Interesting news on Martin Luther King, Jr. has been released this week; though unverified, recently-uncovered FBI documents indicate that political activist Martin Luther King was allegedly involved with a rape in a Washington, D.C. hotel room in 1964, where he reportedly “looked on, laughed and offered advice” to a fellow preacher who committed the act. 



It is precisely this sort of behavior that apparently caused Jackie Kennedy to describe King as a "terrible man" and a "phoney" back in 1964, after she reported that King had bragged of being inebriated at JFK’s funeral, that he had been caught attempting to arrange an orgy during the event. 

This news comes with the release of FBI documents — including audio recordings, which will remain sealed at the National Archives until January 31, 2027 — which have, for some odd reason, been included in the latest "JFK files" release. 

These recordings were likely obtained through bugging and wiretapping efforts by the FBI during the bureau's covert COunter INTELligence PROgram, known colloquially as COINTELPRO, which targeted the surveillance, infiltration, discrediting and disruption of domestic political organizations, chiefly those suspected of ties to communism. 

Of course, the Left immediately mobilized today in defense of MLK, challenging the veracity of these claims and, albeit justifiably, calling into question the reliability of FBI documents. 

Oddly, if it were any other historical figure of any other color or political bent, perhaps a Confederate sympathizer, a Republican, a businessman or any notable figure of European descent or with the loosest of associations with unfashionable behavior, the politicians, talking heads and journalists would have already convicted him — in their own minds, at least  with far less evidence. 

What’s more, the Left appears always ready to defend government when it suits their political agenda, to promote it as the fountain of righteousness, but they somehow get away with selectively rejecting its fidelity wherever and whenever it fails or otherwise undermines their influence or ceases to benefit them personally. 

Across the nation, baseless or otherwise obtuse political rallies have resulted in the removal of monuments, the banning of flags, the renaming of streets and parks for the gradual extermination of certain "intolerable" or "offensive" histories, primarily those related to Southern heritage or the memory of the Confederate States of America

On one particular occasion this year, American University administrators and police officers condemned a peaceful young man after students reported him for sporting a hoodie depicting the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, otherwise known as the Confederate Battle Flag. 

Similarly, in 2017 one young man, the descendent of a Confederate veteran who fought at Gettysburg, was harassed by a mob of angry protesters at Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia, as he peacefully saluted a statue of Robert E. Lee.

The young man believes that the record of the Confederacy has been distorted by groups undermining its cause, chiefly neo-Nazis, the modern Ku Klux Klan, and others under their influence who have misappropriated the banner of the Army of Northern Virginia. 

Since the political outcries, Lee Park has been renamed Market Street Park, and that young man has been expelled from his college in Pensacola, Florida.  

Upon his expulsion from Pensacola Christian College, he remarked, "I believe a Christian institution should support patriotic individuals who want to stand for American tradition and beliefs. It really hurts me a lot when you try to do what's right and you get attacked."

Another student reported that he left Boston University after receiving repeated death threats after participating in a protest against "immigration, multiculturalism and postmodernism."

Meanwhile, at least 110 Confederate memorials have been removed in the United States since 2015; the names of thirty-seven schools, seven parks, three buildings and seven roads have been changed, all in a concerted effort to erase the memory, history and symbols of an era and set of causes that remain profoundly misunderstood by throngs of scandalmongers who are far more eager to protest than to learn. 

It will be interesting to witness the fallout, or lack thereof, following from the recent news on Martin Luther King.

Will the same kind of hysteria follow from these reports regarding King's illicit behavior? 

Will Martin Luther King Boulevards nationwide be renamed? 

Will the monuments, the parks and the societies rethink their icon, their legitimacy or the history that backs them? 

Alternatively, will the talking heads and the politically-minded distinguish between the man, his private life and his contributions to arrive at a more honest conclusion about our world? 

Will we finally avail ourselves of the truth that every historical figure and every human being, however seemingly important or inconsequential, is merely human, fraught with faults just as with talents? 

Unlikely. 

Instead, the majority of acolytes will passively await the value judgment presented by the mainstream media, which will happily tell their audiences what to think. 

They will scurry toward something else; they will work desperately to discredit the evidence or invalidate the messenger; they will find another false prophet, and they will bend every word and sacrifice every measure of truth and honesty for the promotion of their dear idol. 

They will never reconsider their worship, for they refuse to face a world that betrays everything they thought they knew: they’re as thirsty for hope and continuity as for water. 

They’ll simply remember the reruns, the caricatures, the fairy tales, and their cognitive dissonance will drown out the troubling noise with the warm and pillowy embrace of the happy and innocent memories of times past, which are easier to manage than the talons of truth.

This invariably prevents them from ever truly appreciating what's preceded them and what it means to be human.

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