Monday, January 17, 2011

King Day

The Courier's extra focus on King Day over the past few editions has been welcome. King's message of peace and brotherhood has been a natural in the context of the Tucson shootings, and the King Foundation focus on community service is something we all need to hear more about. But for those of us who remember Dr King as a living force in this country, an important element is missing.

He was murdered not for his commitment to peace, but rather for his insistence on speaking truth to power and requiring of us that we walk the talk about our ideals of social justice and fair dealing. When his vision of peace extended to the war in Vietnam, he became the target of more hateful rhetoric than ever, encouraging another "lone gunman" to stalk and murder. Let's remember that lesson as well, and honor Dr King's memory by living up to his robust example.

7 comments:

Pamela said...

Stephen,

As I am unsure how to contact you directly, I wanted to give information here.

While in Phoenix yesterday I heard on the news that there was a letter left at the Yavapai Republican Committee Headquarters concerning their responsibility for the shooting of Gifford as well as Palin's responsibility for the shooting.

Perhaps we can try to find out why this was not in the Daily Courier and was only reported on the news in Phoenix?

Steven Ayres said...

Interesting, and thanks for the tip. I've heard it said that some Prescott stories show up in Phoenix media ahead of Courier, likely due to multiple daily deadlines in the bigger market. Where did you hear about this, radio? TV?

Pamela said...

I heard this on News Talk 550 in Phoenix in the morning - right around 10 AM.

Someone called their show and read the note, said that there was a witness to the note posting and they got a license plate number.

I fully expected that something like this would be covered by the Courier, but as we see this morning - it wasn't.

Steven Ayres said...

Was the note threatening in any way? Were police involved?

Pamela said...

They didn't really say, but from what they read it was mildly threatening taking time to blame both Palin and our own YC Republican's for the shooting of Gifford.

I would assume that if the person who observed the note posting says they got a license plate number they would have reported it to the police.

I personally, being originally from Cincinnati, did not see the note as threatening, but for this area it definitely was an up in arms type of note.

I apologize for not having more information for you! I was out of my car shortly after the person called, but I know they planned on coming back to her after the break.

I just took a brief view at the kfyi website and you can view the archive "podcast" from the 9 AM hour yesterday. I am going to see if I can pull it up and it should be towards the end of the broadcast.

I think I got to Scottsdale close to 9:30 in the morning and heard it shortly thereafter - so sometime between 9:30 and 9:45 is probably the time it aired.

The website is:
http://www.kfyi.com/pages/podcasts.php

Pamela said...

Joe is who called - at 15:45 you can start hearing it.

Steven Ayres said...

Terrific, thanks.