Roomin' House Blues

I've gotten more mail from Move On.org about Mondays's Rallies  across the county on the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King. There are several actions in or near Seattle, where I live, for instance.  There are over 1000 already and probably a few more by Monday. Dear MoveOn member, The protests in Wisconsin  changed the game in America  when it comes to workers' rights and standing up for the American Dream. There's new energy out there and the entire labor movement has come together to  keep the momentum going  by calling for an unprecedented day of solidarity this Monday, April 4—the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Progressives nationwide have stood up to join with the labor movement in overwhelming numbers. Already nearly  1000 solidarity events  including rallies, teach-ins, work site discussions, vigils, faith events, and more are planned for the next few days. The April 4 day...

April 4th is the 43rd Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King and it's coming in the middle of a re-ignition of the labor and civil rights movements in the wake of Wisconsin.  The spirit of the Cheddar Revolution is spreading and hundreds of rallies, protest actions, leafleting, picketing, faith events, teach ins, work site discussions, and marches are scheduled.  A broad spectrum of labor and progressive organizations are taking action for Martin Luther King Jr.'s call for economic justice for all. Martin Luther King was in Memphis 43 years ago this April 4th, helping striking sanitation workers demand a living wage and better working conditions when an assassins bullet struck him down.  Across the country a wave of riots struck poor African American neighborhoods, college campuses erupted in protests and progressives took to the streets as grief and anguish motivated a broad spectrum of Americans.  ...

This is an interview by Steve Allen of Bob Dylan followed by his singing the song.  I publish it today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. because, although it was not a civil rights protest song, it is a result of the civil rights movement, which Dylan strongly supported.

The SNCC Freedom Singers were the official  singing group of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a group of students who went don't South to help with voter registration, protests and organizing.  Dr. Bernie Reagon Johnson of Sweet Honey in the Rock and her husband Cordell Johnson were singers in the group.  Here they are in a 2007 Chicago concert, reunited.

For those of us growing up in the 1960's this speech came to explain the civil rights movement. 

I was growing up right in the time from the height of the civil rights movement to the beginnings of the anti-Vietnam war movement.  As an adolescent I watched civil rights demonstrators, including Dr. King and John L. Lewis beaten and attacked by dogs, and wept over the murders of civil rights organizers.  I learned the connection between race and poverty in America from the media, from books and from first hand exposure.  My sisters Mexican friends who lived a block away were poor.  But I also discovered that my white friends up the block and her white friends around the corner were also poor.  I also discovered that prejudice was not limited to race.  My class mates said horrible things about the mentally ill, which stung me, because my mother was mentally ill. So the civil rights movement and Dr. King began to represent a lot of things to me. He was about a fight against prejudice and intolerance.  But he w...

Consistent Life, an organization I support because it opposes unjust war and abortion at the same time, in their recent email newsletter to me quotes Fr. Frank Pavone director of Priests for Life: “January 15 is the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on or around that day we observe a national holiday in his honor. A week later, on January 22, we recall the tragic decision made that day in 1973 by the Supreme Court in  Roe vs. Wade , unleashing a policy of abortion on demand  . . . Both the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement are evidence of this common engagement. Both movements seek to secure equal rights for marginalized human beings, despite their appearances . . . Defending the equal dignity of every human being after birth strengthens our witness to the rights of those in danger before birth, and vice-versa. The witness, in fact, is ultimately one.” 

I love water fountains, not only because I get thirsty, but because they are a visible symbol of shared humanity.  A water fountain says that someone is going to come this way and say I thirst, just like Christ did on the cross and I have provided for this person I never met.  I planned it when I built this building, or when I paved this sidewalk. The right of everyone to drink from a water fountain regardless of color became a battle line in the Jim Crow South at the peak of the civil rights movement. It was a central point of humanity that everyone had the same need for water and to deny it was to deny human dignity. I got upset at Seattle's Mayor Greg Nichols when he had the water fountains in Seattle's downtown shut off to save money on the city budget.  It made downtown a little less human.  It said I don't care if another human being is thirsty.   When Seattle's new Mayor, Mike McGinn had the water fountains turned back on I was happy.  I ma...

It is November outside among the trees, and the trees have pushed off their leaves like young expected to fly.  And though they flutter and twist in the wind, they fall into huge, dead piles.  Unfortunate children! I have a chunk of dark rye leftover from the last food bank visit. I put it outside for the squirrel.  Monday when I turned my back the squirrel was opening the package of tortillas.  I waged my finger at him and he moved back 3 feet and stood up. I looked at him and gave him two tortillas.  I have been feeding him since.  Fortunate child! I went to the food bank, waiting in a line for it to open.  It was a diverse line, black white, Asian, Hispanic.  Immigrant and non-immigrant. My thoughts drift back to my first encounter with hunger in America.  I was almost 13.  I had been watching TV news and reading the newspaper, paying attention to the civil rights movement.  When I saw the civil rights demonstrators m...