Ben Heine Art and Music Blog: Black

Showing posts with label Black. Show all posts

I took this photo near Santiago de Compostela (Spain). This is the initial shot. As you can see in this case, I didn't change at all the composition of the initial shot. I just slightly modified the contrasts. I like how everything is inverted, even the perspective (the sheep in the background looking bigger than the 3 ones in the foreground...). The above photo has been shot with the Samsung NX11, provided by Samsung Electronics. Co., Ltd.

Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson, some know him as Malik Abdul Aziz (although he did not adopt that name at all) is a retired American boxer. He was the undisputed heavyweight champion and remains the youngest man ever to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles. He won the WBC title at just 20 years old. Throughout his career, Tyson became well-known for his ferocious and intimidating boxing style as well as his controversial behavior both inside and outside the ring.

Nicknamed "Kid Dynamite", "Iron Mike", and "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 in the first round. He unified the belts in the splintered heavyweight division in the late 1980s to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Tyson lost his title when he lost to 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas in February 11, 1990, in Tokyo, by a KO in round 10.

In 1992, Tyson was convicted of sexually assaulting Desiree Washington, for which he served three years in prison. After being released from prison in 1995, he engaged in a series of comeback fights. He regained a portion of the heavyweight title, before losing it to Evander Holyfield in a 1996 fight by an 11th round TKO. Their 1997 rematch ended in shocking fashion as Tyson was disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield's ear. He fought for a championship again at 35, losing by knockout to Lennox Lewis in 2002. Tyson retired from competitive boxing in 2005 after two consecutive knockout losses to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride. Tyson declared bankruptcy in 2003, despite receiving over US$30 million for several of his fights and $300 million during his career.

He is ranked #16 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

More

- Michael Jackson -

Heal the world

© 2009 - Ben Heine
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One of my portraits of the King... RIP
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Heal The World

By Michael Jackson

There's A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need
To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
That There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
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Read the full lyrics
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Watch the clip on You Tube
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Obama's Magic
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Ink on paper (digital colors)

He Is a Real
Magical Man

By Peter S. Quinn

He is a real magical man
Walking down the magical span
Making so much magical for everyone’s treat

Not everything needs to be true
Though it’s going to be like it seems too
In its way on every walking street

Magical man, please have a try
There is deep and there's blue sky
Magical man, make your own magical plan

He’s exited for what he is
Reaching the earth in watery bliss
Magical man, never reaching your own feet

Magical man keeps on flying
Go all the way in your trying
Bringing it all up into reality
In magic’s for all to see

Not everything needs to be true
Though it’s going to be like it seems too
In its way on every walking street

Magical man please has a try
There is deep and there's blue sky
Magical man, make your own magical plan

He is a real magical man
Walking down a magical span
Making so much magical for everyone’s treat

Barack Obama's
Challenges
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Together We Can

A poem by Peter S. Quinn

I want to chance all yes change all
Give me your hope and I have a call
For I am the man for your destiny
Yes sing with me - that's me!

Living isn’t easy if love isn’t growing
We have a new call now worth knowing
I just need to have you by my side
Take a moment and hold me tight

This isn’t easy for me you know
To build it all up and let it grow
I need your help and to be with me here
Stand by my side close and near

The rivers are going to fall a long way
Before we can give a prosper day
But if you will jus build with me
Yes we can! - Yes we can, hope again see

I want to make this a better place
For everyone to have their days
To live and make good of what they do
Together we can! - Yes it’s up to you

I didn't say it would be very easy
We come along way and it’s been breezy
But trust me to build you a hope
And I shall try to be your strong robe

I want to chance all yes change all
Give me your hope and I have a call
For I am the man for your destiny
Yes sing with me - that's me!

Living isn’t easy if love isn’t growing
We have a new call now worth knowing
I just need to have you by my side
Take a moment and hold me tight

I told you yes we can make and stop
Build the future reach the top
I am counting on you to help me
Lent me your hand and it shall be

The rivers are going to fall a long way
Before we can give a prosper day
But if you will just build with me
Yes we can! - Yes we can, hope again see

I want to make this a better place
For everyone to have their days
To live and make good of what they do
Together we can! - Yes it’s up to you

The rivers are going to fall a long way
The rivers are going to fall a long way

Give me your hope and I have a call
For I am the man for your destiny
Yes, sing with me! - That’s me, that’s me

Yes we can, yes we can
Together we can
Build up our hope and dreams

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* * *
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How big a change
can Obama produce?

Comparisons with presidencies that produced
historic changes in direction are overstated.
More like a rebalancing seems in the cards.

By Ted Van Dyk (*)

National media and pundits have seized on the theme that President Obama's new budget, released last week, represents an historic change of direction akin to those taken by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, Lyndon Johnson in 1965, and Ronald Reagan in 1981. It represents change, all right, but a close look at the earlier examples might make it seem less momentous than billed.

More likely, it represents one of the periodic rebalancings we take in domestic policy between those responsibilities taken by the public and private sectors — but never far from a moderate middle. The so-called historic turn being taken by Obama is more a course correction, putting us somewhere between the Johnson and Reagan models

One reason for this prediction is the fact that the Obama budget is based on optimistic assumptions that were dealt a blow Friday when data indicated the economy will be slower than previously anticipated in pulling out of recession. That also means that federal tax revenues accordingly will be fewer than those necessary to pay for the Obama domestic initiatives. Resource constraints, interest-group opposition, and a Congress accustomed to having the final say will certainly slow if not stop much of the Obama program.

>>> Read the full article
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Obama Vs. The Fear
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One of my illustrations of Obama

I'm Superman

A poem by Peter S. Quinn

Come to my heart knock on wood
Don’t worry, be good I'm your super man

I will let you be what you want to be
Bring you through because I'm superman
Let you have wings - set you free
Fly with me with these wings if you can

Don’t pretend just come on and really fly
Everything I said - I'm going to try
Bringing in all the hope I gave
Just you wait and see and - be with me brave

There is no one other - I'm the one
I am the man with the super sign on
Giving you what real power is and test
And you will have to imagine with me the rest

Because I have the powers of kryptonite
There is no way to test such might
But just come with me and see what I can
Together we can - yes we can! Because I'm superman

All the strength that you couldn't know
Is inside and now coming out so fine!
Every power known - now superman shall show
Just watch my symbol as it glows up like sunshine

Mightier than a jet plane I’ll fly and I promise you
Everything will be to better put and straight
Promises you thought gone I shall again renew
Take away all doubt and settle each debate

I will let you be what you want to be
Bring you through because I'm superman
Let you have wings - set you free
Fly with me with these wings if you can

Don’t pretend just come on and really fly
Everything I said - I'm going to try
Bringing in all the hope I gave
Just you wait and see and - be with me brave

I am the guy who will always stand by your side
Give you opportunities and money in your pocket
Don’t you worry - let the worries away ride
I'll be your superman and fly like a rocket

There is no one other - I'm the one
I am the man with the super sign on
Giving you what real power is and test
And you will have to imagine with me the rest

Because I have the powers of kryptonite
There is no way to test such might
But just come with me and see what I can
Together we can - yes we can! Because I'm superman

Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!
Because I'm superman
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* * *

Obama Vs. The Fear

By Mark Morford

Everyone I know is feeling a little bipolar right now. Everyone I know is going through the most unusual of psychological and socioeconomic fits, a bit unsure what to do and how to feel and exactly which emotional flush should be the one to modulate their equilibrium on a day-to-day basis.

The conundrum is obvious and compelling and, as always, deeply enhanced -- if not wholly solved -- by vodka.

It goes something like this: Do you allow yourself, even now, to feel any sort of ongoing, relieved, merciful joy that Barack Obama actually is sitting in the Big Chair in the White House? That this elegant, articulate, Zen-like man whose integrity is rock-solid and whose ideas, while certainly not in perfect alignment with every ultra-lefty vision on the planet (clean coal? Please), are astonishingly ambitious and brave, is leading this nation during one of the worst economic times in its short and paroxysmal history?

Or do you say whatever, sorry, no time for that. Everything's plummeting and jobs are dying and (in my case, certainly) the industry you've worked for your entire career is gasping its last breath, and therefore, melancholy and dread and panic are the only truly appropriate responses, because I don't care how great the guy is, any smile that might cross my face when I see him gets immediately wiped out as soon as I ponder my 401k?

It's a bizarre choice indeed. The good news is, the Obamafied bliss is still out there, still swirling, still waiting to be supped like a fine digestif. At any given moment you can, if you so choose, pause in whatever it is you're suffering from and hear that voice and see his visage or perhaps merely hear some pundit say the words "President Obama" out loud, and you can still enjoy that delicious chill, that little jolt that says, "Oh my God, did we really do it? Is that lucid, impeccably centered man really the leader of the free world?"

Hey, it sure beats doing your taxes.

>>> Read the full article
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Mikado
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This is my old Siamese cat
(almost 20 years!), Mikado.
He is a real survivor! :)
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Angel Eyes

By Peter S. Quinn

There is always morning
In these blue blue eyes
Every sweet and longing
With faraway dream skies
You are comfortably near
When you are by my site
I love to have you here
Each morning, day and night

There's always dreamy glow
In your northern stars
Tears that from inside flow
Like celestial quasars
You have given me my dreams
From a night gone to day
Where blue to outside streams
Like new dawn on its way

There is always with you
Love with so much earnestly
Irises so sweet and blue
Giving love and hope to me
I will want to have here
With my dreams and longings
Reaching out to somewhere
Like the new morning sings
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P E A C E
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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I m a g i n e

By John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
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(The colours of this image
are based on the Rainbow Flag)
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Fly Away Home
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Rasta Man Chant

By Bob Marley

Hear the words of the Rastaman say:
"Babylon, you throne gone
down, gone down;
Babylon, you throne gone down."

Said I hear the words of the Iyaman say:
"Babylon, you throne gone
down, gone down;
Babylon, you throne gone down."

And I hear the angel with
the seven seals say:
"Babylon throne gone down, gone down;
Babylon throne gone down."

I say fly away home to
Zion (fly away home);
I say fly away home to
Zion (fly away home).
One bright morning when my work is over,
Man will fly away home.

One bright morning when my work is over,
Man will fly away home.
One bright morning when my work is over,
Man will fly away home.
Say one bright morning
when my work is over,
Man will fly away home.

Finally
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I wanted to share with you these 2 sensational poems by my dear associates and friends Mark Prime and Peter S. Quinn.

FYI, I'll post brand new portraits of Barack Obama in the coming days.

Good luck to the new US President!

Finally

By Peter S. Quinn

Finally we are equal
That is the place to be
Finally we are equal
Yes finally we are free
There are dreams in our heart
From this moment to start
With so much to give
In rejoice and to live
Every walk in the past
Is now in for its trust
We were flowers and seed
That in past did bleed
But now is our hope
To hold on to that strong rope

Finally we are equal
That is the place to be
Finally we are equal
Yes finally we are free
There is so much to do
Bring it forward and through
With the feelings inside
That will be our guide
What we want to bring
And about much to sing
So we prosper to live
And from ourselves give
There were moments of strife
In our thoughts and life
But now the new shall arrive
Where all our hope will thrive

Finally we are equal
That is the place to be
Finally we are equal
Yes finally we are free
Give from everything like this
Don’t just make moment’s bliss
But the true reality to go
What we share and what we know
Let’s build responsibility
In its greatest durability
And the rise of new day to come
Where every prosper is from
There is hope in this all
Never let it again fall
Make the final takes a go
Come now start freedom show!

Finally we are equal
That is the place to be
Finally we are equal
Yes finally we are free

Ask not what the country
Can do for you
But be its strong support
That makes it all come through

Walking my way with my brother
In every its turn and trial
Where before my father and mother
Had some of the flourish denial
Where everything was in bramble
In every its thorn and din
Through struggling ways and ramble
For the growing to be akin
Where our ancestors are to lead
With their written words and tongues
So we might someday it read
And be their voice and lungs

Oh give the music its true worth
Of singing and the melody
So we might prosper this earth
And become of troubles free
Oh give us the music from birth
In each of its going harmony

In each our walk and waiting try
We consider the changing paces
Where the heart meets the sky
In every its way and graces

So much is to reconsider
And what we must for future aim
So we may come out fitter
In peace and be the same

The road is still to be made
To be someone to grow
And not to the moments fade
That falls in its furlough
There is safeness on the side
To give us something more
And there for each freedom abide
And reach to its peaceful shore

These times must be in safe
To bring us forward still
In every instances waif
To climb to the highest hill

Love everything in right
For that has given the day
And sketched for further light
To lead the tomorrow's way
When tracks of time be brought
Into the raised battlefield
Where love must come from thought
That generation appealed
Through every struggling grain

Each struggle is not plain
And driven through struggle
There is so much strain
In times of hope and juggle

Love is so much to give
And conquering from there
We must in justice live
For us in just adhere

The love is never easy
In times that move along
There might be some breezy
In hours timeless song
And fall be cast on light
On days from bright to dark
For sometimes there is night
Away in glowing spark

Today is sparkle time
Of glowing air
For now is the time made
To go finally there
In to the billow's high
And reach our new sky
With hope of every brim
From the deep of the dim
The growing of glowing
Of well-to-do times to come
With all the best forward
Each fragile bloom

Finally we are equal
That is the place to be
Finally we are equal
Yes finally we are free
There are dreams in our heart
From this moment to start
With so much to give
In rejoice and to live
Every walk in the past
Is now in for its trust
We were flowers and seed
That in past did bleed
But now is our hope
To hold on to that strong rope

Long last
Freedom has come!

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* * *

This Day's Birth

By Mark Prime

Through flood… and quaking earth
And winds, those before our grand machinery
Anointed the solemn granite
With our foundation, left great trust in the future
Of their manuscript here
Upon the countries doorstep,
That such swaying of the pillars toward failure
Be remedied in the steadfast parchment.

On this day of days
Let us consider love,
Compassion, freedom, hope.
The sky, ocean, seas, soil,
Home to our limbs and joy
Long misplaced and low,
A glee sunken in our brow
Like the whisper of our end
Bending the corners of our mouths

Misplaced in the shadow of sand and war.
Let this day be remarkable with its coming,
Daring our better selves to stand upon
The shoulders of history and predict our future
With its smiling on the children of peace

In one long, joy filled stride.
We have but to embrace ourselves; the wish
We formed at this day’s birth
Beneath the sun, reaching down to us, above
The staining of men in trenches
Whose lives wait in favor of ours.
Holding for a rise from ashes,
To cleanse this; our foul-bred hunger.
Equipped with mercy

And kindness
The prayer need rise out of us, but no further
Than we might travel among the poor.

No further than the broken,
The weary, hunkered down, begging
Of our hands to fetch them up.

All of us, our strength, a sturdy column
Unbent by the weight of courage,
Tempests in the empty halls of power,
Rumbling a refrain of unity
As we break open the shackles of misuse
Long left to fester on the people’s steps,
Find that this dawn is upon our shoulders,
It is we, who now negotiate with our own death,
Our girth of indifference.

Rise now to greet this day,
Our moment elevated from spirit,
Breathing, throbbing, ready,
Not for one, not for country,
But for love.

Use it for more than our self-seeking,
Use it as if it were the breath of mercy kneeling down.
Indulge its hunger, it has been waiting so long,
Hunkered down, bound and bleeding, ready
For our rising shoulders to hoist it tall again.

Why I decided to vote for Obama

By Alix Bryan

Here it is the eve of a historic election. For so many people, 1.20.09 is a very important date--but not if we don't vote wisely.

What is voting wisely?
The ability to see beyond propaganda, party lines, and America's borders.

Voting wisely is to first sit quietly and ask yourself what you want our future to look like.

After lengthy deliberation, I decided to endorse Barack Obama--just about 6 weeks ago. I met thousands of wonderful Americans while traveling 22,000 miles on a historic Peace ride. I chose to steer our conversations away from politics, because they are often divisive; instead I emphasized how important it is for each individual to know exactly what they want for themselves, their community and their country. And what they are willing to give to see those beliefs take root. Our visions our powerful.

A personal ideology and daily action within one's community is imperative. I consider voting a very, very small part of my duty as a citizen in a democratic republic. What our government does during the next two or four or eight years is largely a function of what we do, not just of whom we elect.

What many of you told me was that you came out to support the Peace ride because I wasn't angry. I wasn't pointing fingers. I wasn't criticizing you for your beliefs. One of the people who joined me at the end of the ride, in Washington D.C., was a son in a long lineage of soldiers--whose ancestors are buried at Arlington Cemetery. He said he joined me that special day because of my declaration that our fate depends on us, not just those in charge and that anger is not what fosters change.

Obama has this leadership quality. He has run his campaign with more integrity than McCain. At first, I feared Obama was full of empty rhetoric. I did my research. A person who tells you Obama is not experienced enough has not done their research, nor utilized critical thinking to weigh in all the factors. Just because someone might have more experience does not mean they have the character for such an esteemed position. Obama has both.

Think about how great it would be to have an eloquent, passionate, level headed President speak for our country. It is not just rhetoric, Obama inspires people, he gives us hope. Our country needs that now. Our world needs that now. How wonderful would it be to have a diplomat in the office? Someone who will use force if needed, but also understands a greater power--the dialogue it takes to reach common ground. It is not a sign of weakness to confront your alleged enemies. For all religious fans--it is what your God teaches. People think pacifism is easy and weak. Folks, that's silly. It takes a lot of effort to develop and maintain relationships, especially with people who hold different beliefs. It is a skill McCain does not have. In this age of globalization, it will be required for us to co-exist with others.

Yes, McCain has experience. He is experienced in an old paradigm of thought which can not lead us into a better future. He has hundreds of lobbyists working for him. Obama's campaign does not. McCain was in the bottom 5th of his class. If you have been unhappy with President Bush's leadership, remember that he too had experience, as well as bad grades in college.

Beware the hysteria, friends.
Think about the facts. Think about the anger and lies that have come from McCain. Think about his age. Think about the severe lack of experience his VP has. She was chosen to attract female voters. The gamble that his campaign took when choosing Palin is indicative of the risky, impulsive behavior McCain will continue to make if elected President.

The greater American public aren't just ready for change, they are changing. In the past 8 years, we have just collectively witnessed an American decay. Logically, at this point in our history, with our power, money and experience, this country should be better poised to better serve its citizens and lead the world. Instead, we have witnessed an erosion of the Constitution, our economic system, and our international standing.

I spoke with my mother the other day. Sadly, she lost half of her savings in the market crash. On top of that, she is paying her taxpayer money towards the very people who gambled with her money. On top of that, her health care expenses will be raised in 2009. She has worked hard her whole life. She now has cancer, and she is, point blank, screwed. She is the great all American statistic that candidates court.

With great sadness I find that most of my family are voting opposite of me. We go over the list of things that are wrong, and they agree. They agree about McCain's character and policy flaws. But they can't break free of their thinking.

I'm asking you to do so. And to tell others how important it is that the election be won by a Democratic landslide.

In years past, I voted, or considered a third party vote.
But this year, I want a landslide. I want Obama to win overwhelmingly. I quote David Swanson here, because he says it best.

"I want the Republican Party put out of business. If you want to build a new party, what better breakthrough could you ask for than eliminating the Republican Party? That process will be well underway if the Democrats win the House and Senate seats that optimists predict, and if the presidential election is a popular and electoral landslide. I want that landslide understood as a landslide for peace and against Republican war mongering. It can be understood as such despite Obama's own support for war, because most Americans are unaware of that. In the simplest terms, McCain has been labeled the war candidate and Obama the peace candidate.

We can better seize on that and compel Obama to actually be a peace president if he wins overwhelmingly. I understand that Bush claimed a mandate on the basis of the narrowest conceivable (and not even true) victory, but his supporters control the media. To claim a mandate, Obama needs a landslide. And if the Democrats take large majorities in both houses, including 60 or more senate seats (possibly including one or two independents caucusing with the Democrats), then Emanuel's excuse strategy evaporates. If the majority of Americans demand something, the Democrats will have to either deliver or admit to not being democrats with a small d. If Obama does not win a landslide over McCain, I will be ashamed to show my face abroad; I want this as a message to the world."

I've been volunteering for the Obama campaign, and I tell people on the other end of the phone; "thanks for listening for just three minutes. Our time is precious, yes, but think about how much of it we willingly waste each day. Think about the greater things we have to lose in this election and sacrifice just three minutes of your time to listen, think and teach others."

I am not in any way glorifying Obama's entire platform. I simply would rather see him in the White House than McCain--and I'm taking an hour of my time to write this to you. To beg and plead with you to put aside your fears, your stubborn allegiance to third parties that won't win, and take off your Republican hats. People say there isn't too much difference between the two parties anymore anyhow--so why not vote for the man who visibly handles himself with more integrity than McCain?

Please, get out there and vote, but remember how easy it is to do things that are fare more important on the other 729 days every two years.

Vote with your heart and your head. The times- they are always a changing, but sometimes that change comes from the people and sometimes it's forced upon us. Together, let's create the world we are prepared to handle.
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Alvin Ailey,
Choreographer

Alvin Ailey was an American modern dancer and choreographer who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on 92nd Street in New York City. He died of AIDS, at the age of 58.

Alvin Ailey was born in Rogers, Texas on January 5, 1931 and moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he fell in love with concert dance. Inspired by performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and classes with Lester Horton, Mr Ailey began his formal dance training. It was with Mr. Horton, the founder of the first racially integrated dance company in this country, that Mr. Ailey embarked on his professional dance career. After Horton's death in 1953, Mr. Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In 1954, he and his friend Carmen de Lavallade were invited to New York to dance in the Broadway show, House of Flowers by Truman Capote. In New York, Mr. Ailey studied with many outstanding dance artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and took acting classes with Stella Adler. The versatile Ailey won a number of acting roles, continued to choreograph and performed as a dancer.

In 1958, Mr. Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Ailey had a vision of creating a company dedicated to the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance heritage and the uniqueness of black cultural expression. In 1960, he choreographed Revelations, the classic masterpiece of American modern dance based on the religious heritage of his youth.

Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Ailey created some 79 ballets, many of which have appeared in the repertoire of major dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Ballet.

Mr. Ailey died on December 1, 1989. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote of Mr. Ailey, "You didn't need to have known Ailey personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm and exuberance and his courageous stand for multiracial brotherhood." (Source : Abt.org)

Also check out Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's website

Martin Luther King - Barack Obama
Heir to a King?
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Martin Luther King "dream" lives on,
40 years after death
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By AFP

WASHINGTON -- On April 4 America marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, just as the first black candidate with a viable shot at the White House reinvigorates the late reverend's civil rights "dream."

In 1968 the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was killed by a single bullet to the head while on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis, in the southern state of Tennessee.

The Nobel peace prize winner was just 39 years old. Had he lived he would have turned 79 in January.

The mystery surrounding his assassination has swirled for years, with escaped convict James Earl Ray convicted of the murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Ray confessed to pulling the trigger, then quickly proclaimed his innocence. Debate over the official version of events, in which authorities determined that Ray had acted alone, remained sharp.

Conspiracy theories abound, with many refusing to believe how or why this unknown convict could have escaped from a Missouri state penitentiary, planned the assassination, and thwarted King's security detail all on his own.

In death King became a martyr in the civil rights struggle, but in life he was a charismatic hero battling for racial equality, from the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama and non-violent protest marches through to his famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington in 1963.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,'" King told some 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in the US capital.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Four words -- "I have a dream" -- thundered through his speech and entered into the American lexicon as symbols of the pursuit of racial equality in America.

Some 40 years later, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign is putting that concept to the test.

The Illinois senator -- the only African American presently in the Senate -- addressed the sensitive race issue directly in a recent speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that drew parallels with King.

Obama's remarks were "the most important speech on the question of race and the future of this country since Dr King's 'I have a dream' speech," said Chaka Fattah, a black Congressman from Pennsylvania.

Several other commentators hailed Obama's address as historic.

According to a CBS News opinion poll, 69 percent of Americans approved of the Illinois senator's speech, in which he urged an end to the country's "racial stalemate."

Obama also spoke eloquently about black "anger" and white "resentment" at a time when divisive talk about race threatened to engulf the presidential campaign.

"I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle," Obama said.

"But I have asserted a firm conviction ... that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds," said Obama.

While 52 percent of Americans hailed King's "great influence" on civil rights -- with 75 percent of blacks and 47 percent of whites saying so -- some 39 percent of blacks said the country still had "a long way to go" towards racial equality, according to a survey of 1,012 respondents conducted by Ohio University.

Throughout the country, religious ceremonies and university conferences will celebrate King's legacy, including an event at Tennessee's Vanderbilt University, where longtime human rights advocate and black activist Angela Davis will address the theme "We are not now living the dream" of Martin Luther King.

(The report appeared on newsinfo.inquirer.net)

Forty years on, Obama, others
still stand in King's shadow
.
By John Railey

By the spring of 1968, an exhausted Martin King was often tortured by thoughts that he would be killed. He harnessed his pain and pressed on.

“He grasped the benefit of dramatizing his fight with death - and hence, his people’s fight with social death as victims of oppression,” Michael Eric Dyson writes in his compelling new book, April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America.

“King never tired of telling black folk that unearned suffering, even death, is redemptive. … What we make of his death may determine what we make of his legacy and our future.”

Friday will mark the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination on that Memphis hotel balcony. The anniversary has always been a more realistic occasion than the King holiday in January. The holiday is about sweet dreams. The anniversary is about whether America really is moving from nightmares to those dreams. This year, in addition to the big 4-0 number, Barack Obama’s presidential run has given us all the more reason to ponder that question.

Obama, with his mix of black blood and white blood, has forced America into a debate on race. But it’s a debate that often gets dumbed down, just as King’s radical dreams of peace, equality and justice have been dumbed down. King’s hard legacy was quickly wrapped in soft myth.

“Before his body was even laid to rest, Martin Luther King Jr. had slipped into the long night of myth,” Dyson writes. “He quickly became the most overworked martyr since Abraham Lincoln.”

And “martyrdom also forced onto King’s dead body the face of a toothless tiger. … In exchange for collective guilt, whites have given King lesser victories: a national birthday, iconic ubiquity, and endless encomiums,” Dyson, who is black, writes.

“But blacks have not been innocent in the posthumous manipulations of King’s legacy. If whites have undercut King by praising him to death, blacks have hollowed his humanity through worship. … Whites want him clawless; blacks want him flawless.”

Amen.

Dyson writes about how Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, despite what Dyson depicts as strong efforts, have failed to fully carry out King’s dreams. You think? Dyson could have found a few other black leaders to explore. Regardless of what their inflated egos might lead them to believe, Jackson and Sharpton don’t speak for all black folks any more than James Dobson and Pat Robertson speak for all white folks.

Dyson writes that because “King and Jackson fought bitter battles with ugly forces, Obama can gracefully walk through doors kicked in by King and Jackson.” Jackson did fight those battles, at least in his days as one of King’s lieutenants. But Sharpton’s fighting, often just for the sake of publicity, has accomplished little except to further divide the races.

And how about all the anonymous blacks and whites who paved the way for Obama’s presidential run? Dyson does seem to get that point. “As he walks through those doors, Obama carries the legacy of his people even as he seeks to serve the entire nation. There could hardly be a more fitting tribute to King, and to the people and justice he loved.”

It’s a grand vision, anyway, that suggestion that Obama could sweep into the White House, buoyed in large part on the dreams of another charismatic black leader. For Obama to have made it as far as he has is a huge statement in and of itself about how far we’ve all come.

And regardless of whether we’re backing Obama, we can all hope that 40 years after King’s assassination, a black leader shouldn’t have to worry whether he’ll have all the time he needs to play out his hand, for better or worse. He shouldn’t have to worry that he’ll be killed for the color of his skin in a land that proclaims freedom for all.

(The article appeared on journalnow.com)

Barack Obama.