On Jan. 27, your paper carried a letter from a gentleman from Wise, Va., which began and ended with references to Dr. King and which purported to link King’s mission and message to the antics of the “Tea Party” movement.
Because Dr. King is conveniently unable to refute this slander, I will do it for him. The movement which Dr. King led was a predominantly African-American movement. Last time I looked, the “Tea Party” crowd was about as white as a meeting of Ku-Kluxers at a cross burning.
Dr. King’s message was about the redemptive values of love and non-violence and suffering. Much Tea Party talk is shrill, hate-filled and more than occasionally, I believe, overtly racist.
Dr. King died while marching on behalf of garbage workers and described himself as a “democratic socialist.” Unlike the “Tea Party” crowd, but like Franklin Roosevelt and many others whom the tea-partiers hate, he also believed that health care should be a right, not a commodity accessible only to those with big enough wallets.
Although I am sure Mr. Viers congratulated himself on his clever ploy of using an African American hero to attack an African American president, self congratulation and self absorption come with the Tea Party turf. The truth of what Dr. King did and why he did it is too important to be contaminated by second-rate rhetorical postures.
Hugh F. O’Donnell
St. Paul, Va.
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