“But this is the United States!” is a manner of speaking; things are not supposed to be that way, I know. So one can use that phrase as an exasperated exclamation or, if one is idealistic, as the expression of a goal. Yet some appear to have believed things truly were not that way. Is this common?
Martin spent his last birthday working on the Poor People’s Campaign. I am spending this King holiday working to defend higher education in this state, but this is part of work for my regular job that I am using the long weekend to catch up on. Next year we might all participate in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I’m for joyful celebrations of his life.
Not a bad idea.
I’m b****ing about people who are shocked to find poverty in US by pointing out that it has already been discovered…
I’ve been working on an Arizona book banning post and discovered that one of the former Mexican American studies teachers has decided not to teach the “Beyond Vietnam” speech by Martin Luther King to his students because he is afraid that it is no longer acceptable to the TUSD school board and he might get fired.
Why does the NYT feel that it’s important for its readers to know about the “Satanic Verses” readings at a festival in India but not about book banning in the States? These things are not suppose to happen in America so they’re not reported?
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/reading-the-satanic-verses-in-india-is-it-illegal/
“Did Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru and other authors who read passages from Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” which is banned in India, Friday evening at the Jaipur Literature Festival violate Indian law?
That has become a matter of much speculation and debate at the festival on Saturday. Late Friday night, organizers of the festival released a statement saying that they were not consulted before the writers read the passages and the readings were “not endorsed by the Festival or attributable to its organizers or anyone acting on their behalf.” (NYT Jan. 22, 2012)
I’m sure that speech never was acceptable to the TUSD or to any agency of the US government. It upsets college students and their parents and spouses, too. Why NYT cares about banned books elsewhere – you know, the usual hypocrisy! I’m not really a cynical person but on this kind of thing, I’m used to US doublespeak.