There are many reasons for wanting to avoid this topic.  One reason is that it is very controversial.  (For people that know me well, that might sound like a lame excuse, because most of my life has been controversial.)  Another reason is that proving my point on this topic has been difficult in the past.  (But, that was before the invention of the Internet, which made hyperlinks available as interactive footnotes.)  Some might argue that I am not qualified to have an opinion on this topic; and, their argument has a slight degree of merit.  But, the biggest reason for me to avoid this topic is that — because of the onslaught of Leftist ideas put forth by the “mainstream” news media — trying to get my point across on this topic will be like trying to shout in a hurricane.

The topic is what is being done in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In modern America, it would be a lot safer for me to write about Middle Eastern terrorism, or write a top-ten list of insults against the president during time of war, or sell a formula for chemical weapons on a Web site.  But, I have this enduring love for a dangerous thing called truth.  In my short time writing this column, I’ve already received some hate mail.  I don’t look forward to it; but, I won’t back away from the truth, either.  (If it’s any consolation, I’m actually a converted liberal.  That’s precisely why I’m so adamant about proving my conservative viewpoints.  I bought into liberalism when I was young, and the sales pitch was emotion.  Liberalism withers in the light of facts.  As it was so eloquently stated by Winston Churchill, “If you’re not a liberal by the time you’re twenty, then you don’t have a heart.  But, if you’re not a conservative by the time you’re thirty, then you don’t have a brain.”  I converted sometime in my mid-twenties, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.)

The reason that some might argue that I’m not qualified to have an opinion on the matter is because I am not Black.  (In my lifetime, Black people have gone from being officially called Negro, to Colored, to Black, to Afro, to African-American.  During that same time, they have also changed the word “nigger” from a slur to a greeting — but, only if you’re non-white.)  Because not all Black people in America are from Africa (nor are they all Americans; many Blacks are workers from other countries), I refuse to use the more trendy and politically-correct (i.e.:  Leftist) terms that have been invented in recent years.  The word “Ethiopia” comes from a compound Greek word that means “the land of black-skinned people”.  Ethiopia originally meant all of the land of sub-Saharan Africa, rather than a specific country with specific modern borders.  (In other words, “the land of the sons of Cush”, for those of us that read the Bible.)  And, in ancient times, all Black people were referred to as Ethiopians — regardless of where they were from.  To call a Black person Black is certainly not an insult; it is a statement of fact.  The fact itself is neutral.  How one interprets that fact may give it a positive or negative meaning.

To say that I am not allowed an opinion on the King issue because I am not Black would be ludicrous; and, would be the opposite of the spirit of the civil-rights movement with which he is so often identified.  But, it is that identification that I am concerned about.  It seems that Dr. King has been almost canonized with regard to the advancements of Black people in this country — and around the world.  Although he certainly did make fiery speeches, and those speeches helped to fuel the movement, there is much that should be considered with regard to both King and that movement.  Most of what has come from the civil-rights movement has been very positive.  Here’s an example.  When I was a boy in Texas in the early 1960s, my parents had hired a “nigger-lady” (my mother told me that was the correct term of address) to clean our house.  In the last presidential election, I literally walked through an Upstate New York blizzard to carry petitions to get Alan Keyes on the ballot as our country’s first Black president.  (Similarly, a Black friend that I met in the Air Force had been brought up to believe that all white people are possessed by Satan.  His mother taught him that all babies start out Black, but they get the color scared out of them if the Devil takes their soul.  My friend did not sleep the first three nights of Basic Training.  He now champions equality.  But, his story proves that racism can occur in any culture.)

What prompts me to write this article is an op-ed in the Nashville City Paper.

That article lauds a group called the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation (NCBCP).  (Please note that they also do not use the hyphenated term “African-American”.)  The article uses some interesting dodges.  For example, the organization is quickly referred to as “non-profit”, which usually carries an implication of also being “non-partisan”.  But, the two terms are definitely not mutually inclusive.  The best example of that is a political party, which is non-profit, but definitely not non-partisan.  And, the leadership of the NCBCP is made up almost exclusively of Democratic Party operatives and supporters from key unions.  But, there is no mention of that in the City Paper editorial.  Instead, there is a quote from Melanie Campbell, NCBCP executive director and chief executive officer. “We share the information with the public, both the Democratic and Republican parties and members of our organization. We share that information with our members so the people will understand the kinds of concerns and the issues that are important to our community.”  The quote makes the NCBCP appear non-partisan, but it is not.  To “share that information” merely means that this Democratic shill organization puts out a press release, and allows Republicans to read it.

By contrast with the NCBCP, there is another group that is also encouraging Black people to vote.  They are also encouraging Black people to become educated on the issues, and to take a stand.  That organization is called Project 21.  I am proud to say that fellow writer Bob Parks is a member of Project 21.  I would strongly encourage everyone to become educated on the issues that face Black conservatives.  Most of them are the same as the issues that face us all.  But, they carry the extra burden of being ridiculed by liberal Blacks, who label them as some form of traitor.  (Hold fast conservatives!  Being ridiculed for trying to help your own people puts you in very good company.  “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you and persecute you....”)  Black conservatives carry the burden of knowing the truth that many Democrats are the enemy of Black people (especially “pro-choice” Democrats, because of the history of the Negro Project).  Project 21 does not make any attempt to hide who they are.  They are unashamedly Black, and unashamedly conservative.  They have no need to hide their agenda, because their agenda is based upon truth.  Truth is a “multicultural” conservative trait.

Unfortunately, some of the truth about Martin Luther King, Jr., is not very pretty.  And, his identification with the Black civil-rights movement may have been more about “timing” or “positioning” than it was about firm conviction.  How can I say that?  Because the closest followers of King are Leftists like Jesse Jackson, who fight vehemently for the continuation of racial quotas — which are an insult to all people.  Quotas go against the essence of King’s dream of a society that is “judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin”.  (When King said it, he was hailed in the media.  But, when President Ronald Reagan paralleled King’s speech by calling for a “color-blind society”, Leftists in the media blasted him as a racist.)  Although King often spoke like a conservative at the well-publicized gatherings after he became famous, King’s less-publicized remarks were decidedly Leftist.  In an amazing display of political spin, the fact that King was under surveillance by the FBI was used as a straw-doll to claim that the government was anti-Black — even though the FBI was the primary agency enforcing the new civil-rights laws, and the military had conducted forced integration over twenty years before the “march on Washington”.  The actual truth was that the FBI was under mandate to root out Communist agents seeking the overthrow (or undermining) of the American government.  It is an unfortunate fact that King was under surveillance by the FBI because he closely affiliated himself with Communist operatives.  (For those who would scoff at material from the John Birch Society, consider that the JBS has been sued over forty times, but has never lost a case.  Their articles are among the most thoroughly documented of any source.  And, I am not a JBS member.)  The normal time for sealing of classified-Secret defense records is thirty years, but the sealing of the transcripts of King surveillance tapes was court-ordered to be fifty years.  Was concealing the truth about King more important to a judge than defense secrets?

Perhaps the day should be changed to “Black Civil-Rights Victory Day”.  Or, perhaps — when the fortieth anniversary of the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 comes later this year — we should just stop celebrating the rights of any specific group over the rights of other groups.  (For example, please note that there is no special day to commemorate the rights of Americans of Carpatho-Russian descent.  My ancestors came to America to escape slavery — and the growing threat of Communism — after two generations of Black Americans had already been free.  Yet, some Black “leaders” would like me to pay them for the enslavement of their ancestors.)  The civil-rights victory for Black Americans was a victory for all Americans.  But, the celebration of that victory — and its linkage to a man that apparently had a strong Leftist agenda — has been hijacked as a means for the Democratic Party to conceal a strategy to inflate its ranks.  That should outrage all free-thinking Americans of any race.

I sure hope that I’m not merely shouting in a hurricane.

Tom Kovach