Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indianapolis / Baltimore Colts Quiz: Sorry, I thought they”d beat

Tennessee. But I”m running the quiz anyway. 1) What was the

last season in Baltimore? 2) Most rushing yards, career? 3) Most

passing yards, game? [Only Colts QB to throw for 400 yards]

4) Most receptions., career? Answers below.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

August 28, 1963…”I Have A Dream” speech

.I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties

and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream

deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out

the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-

evident; that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of

former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to

sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert

state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be

transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

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.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose

governor”s lips are presently dripping with the words of

interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation

where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hand

with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters

and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every

hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be

made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the

glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it

together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the

South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain

of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to

transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful

symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work

together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail

together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will

be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God”s children will be able to sing

with new meaning “My country ”tis of thee, sweet land of liberty,

of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim”s

pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So

let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let

freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of

Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and mole hill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village

and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able

to speed up that day when all of God”s children, black men and

white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be

able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at

last!”

Doctor Sentenced For Drugging Swimmers

Remember how in the ”70s and ”80s East German women cleaned

up in the swimming events at the summer Olympics? Back then

we all knew they were taking steroids. Some of us thought the

women were really men.

Lothar Kipke was the former chief doctor for the East German

swim team and last week he was convicted on 58 counts of

causing bodily harm but he received a 15-month suspended jail

sentence. The one-day trial was a sign of the rush to bring former

East German sports officials to trial before the statute of

limitations expires Oct. 3, the 10th anniversary of German

unification.

Kipke, 72, admitted in court that he helped design the system to

secretly give swimmers steroids in East Germany”s drive to win

medals for communism. Former athletes say coaches told them

the drugs were vitamins.

Martina Gottschalt, one of the victims, charged that the steroids

caused a deformity in her son”s foot. She said she knew of birth

defects among children of other former East German swimmers.

The court, however, refused to consider her allegation, saying it

was medically unproven and irrelevant to the charges against

Kipke.

Kipke testified he was under orders from higher authorities to

keep the girls and their parents in the dark about the steroids.

Use of performance-boosting drugs permeated East German

athletics. The former national women”s swim team coach

admitted at his trial in 1998 that he secretly gave his athletes

banned drugs.

Of course, the International Olympic Committee should strip the

girls, and other East German athletes, of their medals. But the

IOC was always a tool of the Communists [said the editor].

John Rocker…a different angle

In an article titled “Screwball Psychologizing,” columnist Charles

Krauthammer compares Major League Baseball”s decision to

have Atlanta Braves racist John Rocker get psychiatric help to

what Soviet authorities used to do with dissidents in their own

“psychiatric” hospitals.

Krauthammer says racism is not a medical problem. “We would

like to pretend it is, because we like to medicalize our social

problems…Medicalizing offers the illusion of understanding of a

problem, and ultimately curing it.”

“John Rocker is a jerk. But jerk is not a medical diagnosis
rightly, try to prohibit people from doing bad things. We have

made a rule in our society that you must not speak hate out loud.”

“This, of course, is hypocrisy – we regulate just the speech, not

the feelings – but hypocrisy is what keeps society civil. You may

hate black people, you may disdain Asians, you may despise

homosexuals, but if you say what is in your heart, you are going

to be punished. That is a good thing.”

“You are not punished by government, because we believe in the

First Amendment. But you are punished by society: by universal

opprobrium, condemnation and ostracism. The heat Rocker took

for his remarks was perfectly appropriate. Until Commissioner

Bud Selig decided that this was a problem for the brain doctors.”

“Selig”s maneuver is cynicism in the service of silliness – the

silliness of a therapeutic society that reduces all social problems

to the psychological. As when the president of the United States

tells Serbs and Kosovars, Hutus and Tutsis, Chechens and

Russians, Arabs and Israelis that the root problem of ethnic

conflict is irrational prejudice and mistrust of “the other” – rather

than the struggle for power, domination, territory, wealth, pride,

vindication, etc., which has underlain wars both between and

within groups since Cain slew Abel.”

“You don”t therapize ”anger.” You don”t cure ethnic cleansing

with sensitivity training. You don”t send bigots like John Rocker

to a shrink.”

“Evil is a moral problem, not a medical or psychological one. It is

nice to pretend otherwise. But if that pretense becomes real, then

we start inhabiting a universe somewhere between ”A Clockwork

Orange” and the psychiatric prisons of the gulag.”

Again, Rocker is a dirtball. Society can take care of him. Let us.

Top 3 songs for the week of 1/18/64: #1 “There! I”ve Said It

Again” (Bobby Vinton.one of the most underrated performers

of all time) #2 “Louie Louie” (The Kingsmen) #3 “Popsicles

And Icicles” (The Murmaids). *”I Want To Hold Your Hand”

debuts at #45.and the rest is history.

Quiz Answer: 1) Colts last season in Baltimore was 1983.

2) Most rushing yards – Lydell Mitchell, 5,487.

3) Most passing yards – Johnny Unitas, 401, 9/17/67.

4) Most receptions – Raymond Berry, 631.

Happy Birthday, Cardinal O”Connor!!

And to Paul Azinger, who captured his first win since 1993 (with major

cancer surgery along the way), it couldn”t happen to a better guy!

Next Bar Chat, Wednesday…International Living