20080118 Westminster Eagle column: Dr. Martin Luther King's enduring words

Dr. Martin Luther King's enduring words

Westminster Eagle

01/18/08 By Kevin E. Dayhoff

American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote in a book, "Strength to Love," published in 1963:

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. ..."

Those words are as enduring today as when written 45 years ago.

The year 1963 was a long time ago and we, as a society, have come along way toward social justice since the days of legally-sanctioned segregation.

And yet we must be constantly vigilant, as new challenges are always on the horizon.

This is especially true today as our nation continues to wallow in a political tar pit like some bellowing mastodon with a hangover. It seems these days that all issues of community, race relations, the environment and public policy quickly deteriorate into a "red versus blue" coarsening of dialogue promoted by a lack of humanity and the intellectually challenged.

Here's a well-kept secret for you -- the red versus blue thing isn't real, except as promoted by pundits and cable television stations that wish to have their way with you.

Leadership is about bringing folks together -- not promoting division.

We could use a few national leaders like Dr. King these days and it's only appropriate that we set aside time every year to attempt to reacquaint ourselves with the practice of solving our problems by cultivating nonviolence and compassion.

Because I haven't taken enough abuse recently, I'll venture to share my view that the recent discussion about Taneytown not being a "Sanctuary City" would be boring if it didn't give us a massive headache.

Please re-read the first two paragraphs.

The resolution of Taneytown is a stick in the eye for those of us who are trying to promote Carroll County as a welcoming community and family-friendly place to live and prosper.

It does little, if nothing, to address the problems of illegal immigration.

The societal and economic cost of illegal immigration is certainly a fair discussion. I mean, what part of illegal is not understood?

Nevertheless, the overall solution needs to occur in Congress, a body politic that, unfortunately, gives new meaning to "pathological dysfunctia."

Furthermore, the resolution coming at a time of the year when we celebrate Dr. King could not be more ironic.

Take a memo: xenophobia as an approach to solving complicated immigration problems is interesting in the way a septic truck running off the road, through your front flower bed and ending up on your front porch is interesting.

The resulting rhetoric, gnashing of teeth and collective hand-wringing only promotes myths and misinformation that distort meaningful debate and mute the questions that demand carefully thought-out solutions.

At this point, the only "sanctuary" I'm interested in is a sanctuary from stories like this one that will only go down as indictments of community leaders who have spent years offering solutions in search of a problem in an attempt to gain political advantage by populism.

This year we commemorate the life and work of Dr. King on Jan. 21, but he was born in Atlanta on Jan. 15, 1929.

Much of our community will come together to celebrate him this Saturday when the Carroll County NAACP will hold the fifth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at Martin's Westminster at 8 a.m. (If you'd like to go, call the NAACP office at 410-751-7667.)

Meanwhile, what I really wanted to write about is a persistent and perennial question from many young readers and new folks in our community:

"Who was Robert Moton?"

If you have any memories about the old Robert Moton School in Carroll County, please share them with me, so that I may include them in a future column.

Considering how angry and passionate folks are about the sanctuary city discussion, my next column may very well be written from an undisclosed location.

Hopefully it is a place that serves grits and has a good stereo system so that I can play Led Zeppelin's remake of Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks."

Anybody know what that song has to do with Robert Moton?

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kdayhoff@carr.org.

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=978&NewsID=869869&CategoryID=18317&on=1

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Courthouse history seems to match theatrical flair of current case
The eyes of Maryland were on the Carroll County Courthouse last Friday as oral arguments were heard in the case of Michael D. Smigiel Sr., et al, v. Peter Franchot, et al.

This, of course, is the historic constitutional test case pertaining to alleged constitutional and procedural irregularities i...
[Read full story]

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Something we really must talk about
On Christmas Eve, while many friends and families were preparing to get together and celebrate the holidays, the friends, colleagues and loved ones of Smithsburg police officer Christopher Nicholson, 25, gathered to bury him.

On Dec. 19, Officer Nicholson and the stranger he tried to help, Alison ...
[Read full story]

20061213 Say It In Broken English

Say it in Broken English

December 13, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff (668 words)

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=978&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1247802&om=1

I was watching the current TV series “Studio 60” when this column came to life. In the curious and paradoxical world of word associations, there was an oblique reference to Anita Pallenberg in the show.

Ms. Pallenberg was a protégée of the early “Rolling Stones” and Marianne Faithful; who cut one of my all time favorite albums, “Broken English,” in October 1979. (One song, “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan," was used in Ridley Scott’s 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise.”)

In a later conversation with my wife (pray for my wife) I segued into the current discussions about the history of English as the predominant language in Carroll County. English speaking Europeans came to Carroll County slowly at first, but in the end it appears that the English speakers write the history books.

Before 1744, the predominant government in Carroll County was the Haudenosaunee Nation – the “Six Nations.” The Haudenosaunee played a key role in the evolution of American democracy and paradoxically, they are why we speak English today.

Much of our current way of life is owed to the heritage and legacy of the Haudenosaunee Nation. Several main roads in Carroll County have their beginnings as Haudenosaunee trading routes. And several towns in Carroll County - Patapsco for example - had their beginnings as Haudenosaunee settlements.

It was not until after the Treaty of the Six Nations was signed on July 4, 1744 with the Haudenosaunee Nation, and the dispute over the Mason-Dixon Line was settled in 1767 that settlers started to come here in greater numbers.

It was near present-day Linwood, that the first recorded structure in the territory was built around 1715 by John Steelman. In 1744, approximately 65 families lived in Carroll County.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 signaled the end of the North American portion of a global war between France and England, the French and Indian War, 1754–63.

It was one of the last pieces of the puzzle enabling settlement in Carroll County with relative freedom from violence. The last piece, of course, was the American Revolution, 1775-83.

But the very first “settlers” were the Algonquians who arrived around 800 B.C. The original Algonquians divided into a number of distinct tribe-nations, which formed a multi-nation government under a constitution that dates to approximately August 31, 1142.

The Algonquians called themselves the “Haudenosaunee” meaning “People of the Longhouse” and their government was one of the first true participatory democracies in history. It also incorporated full political and leadership rights for women.

The French term for the Six Nations confederacy was “Iroquois.” The term is considered a racial slur by many Native-Americans. The original Carroll Countians spoke one of many dialects of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic family of North America.

The Six Nations consisted of “nation-states” made up from different areas governed by the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and the Tuscaroras. The Six Nations extended from Labrador to South Carolina.

Many historians to this day credit the multi-cultural and multi-lingual participatory democracy as exemplified by the Haudenosaunee Nation to be the inspiration for our nation’s founders’ ideas for our system of government.

Other historians have vigorously contested this theory as anecdotal and supposition. Read: history is written by the victorious. However, there is evidence, for example, that both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in particular used material delineated in a famous speech made by the great Haudenosaunee “sachem” (chief,) Canassatego, in 1744 at the signing of the Treaty of Six Nations.

In the Constitutional Convention of May through September, 1787, the basis for the “federal system” of government advocated by Messrs. Jefferson and Franklin was based on the Haudenosaunee system of government.

Today it is a paradox that for 75 percent of Carroll County’s history, we did not speak English. But to this day, the English speakers are (re)writing history.

And Marianne Faithful; four decades later, she is currently victorious over many personal challenges, living in Paris and enjoying yet another successful re-write of her singing and acting career – and performing in French.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org

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Often, when I consider the immigration discussions in Taneytown, I think of Marianne Faithfull’s “Say it in Broken English.” (I had the opportunity to see Marianne Faithful in Fells Point – quite a number of years ago and it sounded more like this.)

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Related:

Immigration Gumballs

This clip from the longer video, Immigration by the Numbers, features Roy Beck demonstrating the catastrophe of the huge numbers of both legal and illegal immigration by Third World people into the modern nations. He uses standard statistics and simple gumballs to show this disaster in the making.

Video was done by roy beck:

http://www.answers.com/topic/roy-beck

Full video on google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069

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"Five Easy Pieces"

20061121 Hoby Wolf weighs in on Taneytown English First issue

Hoby Wolf weighs in on Taneytown English First issue

On of my Westminster Eagle columnist colleagues has weighed-in on the Taneytown English First initiative:

Logic of press reports from Taneytown seems foreign to me

11/21/06 By Hoby Wolf

Nothing warms the cockles of a former public relations man's heart like watching the press getting sucked into a non-story; mostly because of the young liberal reporters who sense blood -- when it's really a dry field.

This, to me anyway, is the non-story that got Taneytown some national press this past week.

The town council Taneytown voted 3-2 to pass something it called the English Language Unity Resolution, which asserts that all city government business will be conducted in English.

According to press accounts, there is no penalty for breaking the resolution, nor does it conflict with federal laws requiring interpreters to be provided when necessary.

But that didn't stop people from objecting to it, of course. Why, we even had quotes from a high official from a local jurisdiction on how shameful that action was!

I say two things:

Read the rest of his column here.

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