April 4, 1968
Unaware.
He was unaware. That’s the reason Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain gave this week for voting against a government holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1983. He was unaware of Dr. King’s legacy.
Nearly three decades after the Montgomery Bus Boycott that led to the end of racially segregated public transit in Alabama. Two decades following the March on Washington and King’s historic “I have a Dream” speech. Nineteen years after Dr. King became the youngest person in history to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Fifteen years after Dr. King was assassinated. And just six years after President Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded Dr. King the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
After all this, Senator John McCain refused to support a Federal holiday for Dr. King because he was “unaware of the civil rights leader’s legacy.”
While many have focused this week on Senator McCain’s confession that he had been wrong when he cast this 1983 vote, instead we should be focusing on why, as an elected member of Congress, McCain was unaware of King’s contributions to our nation. It doesn’t just seem unbelievable; it is unbelievable.
Bull Conner, Selma, the Birmingham Jail – in 1983, at the age of nearly 50, McCain was still unaware of one of the most transformational periods in United States history. At a time when the Republican Party is reaching out to build bridges with the African-American community, the party’s Presidential standard bearer is a man who in 1983 was “unaware” of Dr. King’s legacy.
Not the resume of someone who can unite our country.
Too bad Joe Leiberman wasn’t on stage to whisper in McCain’s ear this week like he was earlier in the Middle East when McCain seemed genuinely “unaware” as to the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. Looks like Lieberman, who as a Yale Student marched with Dr. King, should have been holding McCain’s hand twenty-five years ago as well. He could have told McCain about the civil rights movement – something he’s clearly missed.
And so we’re left wondering…what’s next? What other issues and world events is McCain “unaware” of? We’re sure to find out in the general election.
Looks like Senator Obama has had it right all along: it takes more than just experience. It takes the right experience.
Posted by Bernie Campbell on Sunday, April 6, 2008
Permalink: April 4, 1968
But beyond this blatant disregard for black people's intellect, I am more concern about the sentimentality from which such 'unawareness' is capable of growing.
I understand your suggestion that we should, instead be focusing on why he was unaware of King's contribution to our nation. But his 'reason' for being unaware is really his 'excuse' for not voting for the holiday. So, I suggest that it's not a question of why he was unaware, but why he was so predisposed to vote against the holiday in the first place. And more importantly, is he still so such biased that we might expect more of the same 'unawareness' from a McCain presidency?
By jahng bahng at 2:00pm on Tuesday, April 8, 2008