Yesterday, in the whole Country, we observed a holiday celebrating the birthday and life of a great Human Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. (born on January 15, 1929). Even though he was later cowardly assassinated (on April 4, 1968), while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, his impact on the social evolution of the United States was unparalleled. The holiday was proclaimed by President Carter and later signed into law by President Reagan - as a National Holiday.
Everybody remembers his "I had a dream..." speech, and even though the "promised land" hasn't become a reality yet - the profound changes have been made to a fabric of Society.
Most of people tend to forget that the MLK was an advocate for all equities, not only fighting for the emancipation and equal treatment of the people of color, but all underprivileged groups of the inhabitants of the Country, including all the minorities, women, and the poor - who were previously conveniently overlooked by everybody.
I have a great respect and admiration for Dr. King. I also believe that it would require nothing short of insanity to try to undermine his profound importance to the democracy, and the history of the USA in general.
And yet - in the January of 2010 an elected member of Colorado School Board - Brett Reese threw at Dr. King a bunch of racial slurs and unsubstantiated political accusations, and openly quoted in his radio talk show a letter by a Neo-Nazi activist, trying to deface the memory and the legacy of the MLK, trying to sell to the public a seed of hatred and lies. It really looks like we are going backwards...
To me the Martin Luther King Jr day is also a day to remember, and bring closer, one of the American Presidents - a very unlikely hero, very unpopular for his role in escalating the Vietnam War - Lyndon B Johnson. I still remember sitting on a floor in a living-room and listening to the transmission from the Arlington Cemetery a few days after the fatal shooting in Dallas in November 1963. JFK was dead. Even though I was a kid, in a foreign country, I knew that something terrible had happened. Unspeakable act of violence... Unfortunately one of many these years... The surviving Vice President was sworn into the Office. Lyndon B Johnson began his 6 years of service.
Ever since I started understand a bit better the worlds affairs, I grew impressed by this President. I know, I am going to utter a very unpopular statements here. The reverence with which the Nation looks upon a fallen President (JFK) prevents anybody to truly balance his actions. I am not going to dwell on it too long, but I have to mention at least 2 major developments: during the Bay of Pigs Invasion John F Kennedy brought us the closest to the nuclear annihilation we have ever been. I understand better and better the mitigating circumstances, the complexity of the situation, but I am still convinced that the hard line position of JFK might have brought the end of the time as we know it. Well, it didn't... The JFK's decisions also pushed America into the war. President Eisenhower had about 900 advisers in Vietnam, by the 1963 American forces in Vietnam grew to 16000. This was only the beginning. Predominant understanding of that region was based on a 'Domino Effect Theory' saying that if the Communists are not stopped in a first country they invade (South Vietnam) the 'red plague' would spread to all the neighboring countries. It wasn't a right assumption as we know it after the fact.
When Lyndon B Johnson took the office, the machine was already wound up to the brink of explosion. Of course, he escalated the war. He committed more and more equipment, more and more personnel. More and more body bags were coming back home. The war was becoming more and more tiresome, destructive and taking higher and higher toll on the Nation.
Yes, President L.B. Johnson is responsible for it. But did he have a choice? He didn't start it, he inherited the war with the Office...
Alongside with the Vietnam War L.B. Johnson was involved in pushing the most advanced socially legislature in the history of the United States. Coming from the South (Texas) he was deeply concerned with the racism, and all forms of discrimination on a base of the gender, religion, ethnicity etc. He was 'marching' shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther King Jr. and other racial, and social activists finalizing in 1964 a piece of legislature which was not even expected by many - the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT of 1964. Of course he had to tread lightly if he wanted to be reelected in 1964. Nevertheless he hasn't stopped. The other socially charged, revolutionary initiatives followed the Civil Rights Act and were signed into law during his second term (actually first term of his own presidency). Please just have a look at a few bills he introduced and signed, changing the America forever.
Our days are spent on discussions about the future of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid... Both Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law by L.B. Johnson, along with the law addressing unfair treatment of the minorities on a housing market, as well as uneven pay received by different groups of employees.
And yet the civil unrests caused by the WAR were growing. And Johnson, deeply troubled by the situation and the hatred of the Nation (directed directly at him) appeared in front of the Television on March 31, 1968 uttering these memorable words: "...I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President". In the same speech he announced some new steps to limit the Vietnam War. No one wanted to believe in that, nor remember it...
* 1963: Clean Air Act of 1963
* 1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964
* 1964: Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
* 1964: Wilderness Act
* 1964: Food Stamp Act of 1964
* 1965: Higher Education Act of 1965
* 1965: Older Americans Act
* 1965: Social Security Act of 1965
* 1965: Voting Rights Act
* 1965: Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
* 1966: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
* 1967: Age Discrimination in Employment Act
* 1967: Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
* 1968: Bilingual Education Act
* 1968: Fair housing
* 1968: Gun Control Act of 1968
The Vietnam War continued to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. America has lost 58 thousand soldiers, killed or missing in action. The terrible toll.
The war he hasn't started, the war he tried to limit and end, completely overshadowed his undeniable social efforts and achievements. It made him remembered by the common man as one of the worst Presidents in the history of the United States instead of who he really was - one of the most progressive and devoted to social, and racial equality, and one of the most effective in it, Presidents.
I know that my lone cry is not going to change much, but maybe someone, even a single person, will look at Lyndon B Johnson - the 36th President of the United States - and see him for who and what he was - a fighter for social and racial justice, caring for the Country and the People.
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