Word. So, how come PDX has no MLK day parade? Should we start one? Would it rock the boat in these parts?

Would it rock the boat in these parts?
Not bloody likely. This is a blue state.

I have a dream that one day ramix will fix me Ghanalicious plantains.

Loquacious, maybe we should, but next year. This year, it's just too bloody cold!!!

Sciurus, anytime baby, anytime!! Lemme know when/where!

Martin Luther King is one of my heroes and a shining example of humanity at it's best.

*salutes*

.

I'm only about a mile from Ebenezer Baptist, which is now part of the King Memorial Center. The original church building (which was still in use till the congregation built a new building right across the street) looks just like did in the 50s and 60s, and audio recordings of Dr. King's speeches and sermons play in the sanctuary.

It's incredibly moving to go in there and just sit and listen... you feel like you're back in time, in his lifetime.

I was quite moved by my visit to the King Center in Atlanta, which I expected to be yet another general visit to a historical museum, but I came out with a renewed feeling that it's really up to all of us to enact change for good in our society.

I came out with a renewed feeling that it's really up to all of us to enact change for good in our society.

I'd like to visit the King Center some day. My visit to the Museum of Tolerance in LA just left me feeling cold and angry (we had the absolute worst tour guide. A bunch of college students come to the museum early on a Saturday morning, and you try and guilt them into admitting latent feelings of racism? Well, screw you.)

Not bloody likely. This is a blue state.

Is it really? Or are Portland/Salem/Eugene simply VERY blue cities? I know the politics here are very liberal/leftist for the most part, but how much of that is a function of urban density winning over sparsely populated rural districts?

Frankly I've been kind of chagrined by a handful of comments I've overheard or have had spoken to me since I've been here in the PNW. Stuff like "I like it here 'cause there's hardly any Mexicans" and some other crap, and it's been in surprising situations where I wasn't expecting any racism.

Also, isn't Oregon (like Idaho and Washington) known for a number of neonazi groups?

Anyway, I've had the impression that there's an amazing number of what I would call - for lack of better terms or laziness - enlightened, liberated rednecks and cowboys. I'm none too quick to pigeonhole or judge folks by occupation or mode of dress out here (or in general, but particularly out here) - because that grizzled "rancher" archetype in his dirty Carhartts driving a big old GMC truck might just be an organic berry farmer who happens to be vegetarian and a member of ACT UP and using biodiesel in his truck, or suchlike. (Which is awesome.)

But I've certainly seen/heard quite a few traditional, shit-kicking good old boys who were quite vocally on the bigoted side of the fence.

Anyway, just musing. It'd be amazing to see some sort of MLK parade here by next year, but I'm a terrible organizer. Nice ideas, but don't hand me some big-ass complicated, political project unless you want me to blow myself up.

Though, if anyone else wants to organize, I can fix your computers and write stuff for you.

I listened to I Have a Dream this morning and almost cried. And I can't believe that now it's happening to teh gays (not that it wasn't before). I hope we're, if not equal, at least all treated fairly in the immediate future.

My visit to the Museum of Tolerance in LA just left me feeling cold and angry

The Museum of Tolerance in LA is like some kind of bizarre experiment in wallowing in guilt and remorse. They really, really ladle it on thick there.

It might be a function of it being in LA, where "ladling it on thick" has been refined to an advanced science, spawning entire industries with countless engineers dedicated to "ladling it on thick". I hear they call it "Hollywood". I call it "blowing unwanted smoke up my ass".

I listened to I Have a Dream this morning and almost cried.

I always cry. It can be a little embarrassing, because even if I hear a little clip, I cry. In fact, I'm tearing up right now.

Yep, clip came on NPR and I sniveled at my desk.

God bless you, Dr. King.

And thank you god for Taye Diggs. Yum.