The Perversion of Dr. King

Mark Twain noted, “The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”

I am reminded of this quote whenever I read how conservatives try to use part of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" against any attempt to realize social justice for African-Americans through the type of collective action we have available to us through federal legislation and governmental policy. Conservatives fixate on the line from King's speech.

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.

They try to argue that all government policy which attempts to help those in need is a violation of what King stood for.

This sort of King "proof texting" ignores that fact that King worked for economic justice as part and parcel of his work for political rights. In fact, his last act was to take part in a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis. Dr. King felt that some attempt had to be made to address the economic injustices that fell most heavily on people of color in this country.

Conservatives have not only tried to adopt King as one of their own, they have also tried to pervert King's essential message.

Back in School Today

William Blake
We were back in school today after an unexpected 4 day break due to an Artic cold front which came through the state late Wednesday. We still have enough snow days that we are looking at being out for summer during the last week of May. However, we still have the rest of January, February, and even March to get through.

I am teaching my seniors some of the poems from William Blake, ones from his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. I am trying to get them to become aware of who is talking in the poems, or the Speaker, and the Tone of the poems. Blake's a good one for that because he adopts different personas in the poems from the two books.
Mark Twain
My Honors English 11 is getting ready to study The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I gave them the books three weeks before Winter break, so they have had about 6 or 7 weeks to do the reading. I am under no illusions that they have done so.

My regular English 11 has had the novel also. They are even less likely to have done the reading. I am not sure what to do with them except to have them read certain passages and get through the book best they can. Today we went over words they are likely to see on the "End of Instruction" (EOI) test. I had to use my loud voice to get through to them. This is the biggest problem I have, getting them to be quiet and listen to me long enough to get any sort of learning done.