On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. He was developing the "Poor People's Campaign" to address the issue of economic justice. He was specifically preparing to participate in a union march for the Memphis sanitation worker's union. This union -- or so I've read -- had many black members.
I do wonder at the Orwellian shift from the bizarre spectacle of Terri Schiavo to the spectacle related to the death of an admittedly important -- but also very patriarchical and right-wing -- religious leader. Important history -- the ever more relevant memory of MLK -- is being washed away just as local, national, and global issues are displaced every day by the latest celebrity trial or political teapot tempest.
Our government and media together nurture a marriage of religious fervor with demonic consumerism. To be a citizen seems to have become more about extending our ecological footprint as much as possible, giving daily assent to endless resource wars, and baptizing all of this rapacity with the thinnest, most blasphemous veil of religiosity.
I am saddened by the death of a Pope who has allowed at least some breath of change within a powerful global religious institution.. I fear that he will be followed by one more reactionary, who will exclude women, GBLT people and those who disagree with church dogma even more heavy-handedly. However, this Pope's death (conveniently following the Schiavo fiasco) is being made into yet another useful religio-fascist media spectacle. Our attention is diverted from the poor and oppressed here and around the world. As we lower the flags in our state and city, we are trained to accept without question the judgments of those in authority. We are trained to be compliant even while the opiate of the media lulls those who attend to it into a trance which prevents perception and action.
Will MLK and this particular pope meet on some other Celestial shore? Did they share any common values? Were there differences? And why do we lower the flag for this white, very conservative religious leader while not even mentioning the import and impact of a very challenging, very black American religious leader -- a champion of the poor and a champion of justice -- who was brutally gunned down just 37 years ago?
I find this to be a sign of the way we in Minneapolis are being led back into bigotry. Dark shadows of superstition are growing to hide the very real sins of our culture here at home and far away. Our city flag should not fly at half-mast for this Pope, or else many other religious and political figure must have his or her death marked in the same way. This is a marriage of Church and State which may be valid for the Vatican and may seem valid for those who are a part of the "American Christian Right" but it is not valid from the perspective of many Americans who find it exclusionary or even offensive.
Will City Hall also lower its flag if the Governor decides that Jerry Falwell's death is to be so commemorated? Will the death of the Dalai Lama be so honored? Will any Muslim, Buddhist, or other religious leader be so honored? Will important leaders of various ethnic and racial background be so honored? Does the government of the City of Minneapolis concur with the Governor of Minnesota that the Pope is Christ's Vicar on earth? Shall we all join a church or religion so approved by our government?
I find the lowering of flags to be a part of a manipulative and divisive public relations campaign on the part of a very small neo-conservative, corporatist wing of the Republican Party. Our government leaders should publicly apologize for this action. It was and is a mistake, at the very least.
-- pedaling for peace and ecojustice -- Gary Hoover
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