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Pence, in Memphis, Pays Homage to MLK and Touts Trump Accomplishments

JB

Vice President Pence at Holy City Church of God in Christ

It is now a matter of history that, on Sunday, January 19th, the eve of the Martin Luther King holiday in the election year 2020 of the Trump years, the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, came to Memphis to pay homage.

Pence’s first visit on Sunday morning was to the National Civil Rights Museum, where — as he would recall to his hearers at his next venue, the Holy City Church of God in Christ on James Road — “They pointed out to me that in photographs replicated on the wall, they want to make sure that the American flag was in color to know that this movement was about holding up the ideals and values of every American.”

A Church official, Bishop Vincent Mathews, Jr., introduced Pence as “a brother in Christ,” who, among other things, respected his marriage by refusing to “meet women alone” in public and “didn’t come here to campaign, but to honor his hero and brother, Dr. Martin Luther King.”

Pence began his message by invoking a memory of the King statue on the Mall in Washington, the one that stands impressively across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Park, just across the street from the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. “And rightly so,” said Pence. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. belongs in that Pantheon of American heroes. Dr. King was one of the heroes of my youth, as you already know.”

He proceeded:
“I’m here to pay a debt of honor and respect to the man who, walking the dirt roads of the Deep South and speaking to hundreds of thousands on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, touched the hearts of the American people, and led the civil rights movement to triumph over Jim Crow. Tomorrow all across America, millions of citizens will celebrate his life and his legacy. And we honor him by remembering his work, his courage, his sacrifice. We honor him by teaching our children and our children’s children.”

The Vice President recalled the bloody, pivotal March on Selma in 1965 on behalf of voting rights. “10 years ago in Selma, Alabama, I had the great privilege of traveling in a pilgrimage led by Congressman John Lewis. We literally walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the anniversary. It was an extraordinary experience for me and for my wife, for our three children. We honor those who serve and honor Dr. King.

MLK Day, he said, would be “a day on, not a day off by giving back to their communities and coming alongside families in need. And I know full the city will be there every step of the way….

There was , it should be said, a bit of what was arguably politics: “‘We’re showing you that under this administration, we’ve made every effort to open pathways to the American dream for every American, and we have stood strong for the values that we hope there. Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, we have created more than 8,700 opportunity zones, including many here in Tennessee, creating new investment and jobs to underserved communities across the nation. I’m proud to say that today, African-American unemployment is at the lowest level ever recorded. Not long ago, surrounded by university leaders, President Trump made the more than $250 million in annual funding to historically black colleges and universities permanent under federal law.”

The administration, Pence said, had pursued criminal justice reform, and “we have stood without apology for the sanctity of human life.’

“We made great progress as a nation but there’s lots of work to be done.
I can promise you this president, this administration will always stand for the values that we share and the right of every American to live in American Dream regardless of race or creed, or color.”

Returning to his tribute to King, the vice president said, “I think it’s important to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. was also a Christian leader. Throughout my life, what has most inspired me about his example is that he was first and foremost a man of faith — a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a workman approved, rightly able to handle the word of truth.

“He said, ‘I may not be there with you, but I want you to know tonight ways people will get to the promised land.’ And so we did …

“If we strive to open doors and opportunities for every American and if we more faithfully follow the One that he follows, we will see our way through these divided times.
And We’ll do our part in our time to form a more perfect union in this one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much.”

Before and during Pence’s participation in the ceremonies at Holy City, which included a lengthy testimonial to Bishop Jerry Taylor, the church’s founder, police cordoned off the church and the immediate surrounding area from a group of media and some demonstrators protesting what they regarded as Pence’s hijacking of the MLK remembrance.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Only Two Questions That Matter

Another Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is behind us, a weekend in which his life and his dream of equality for all were celebrated with speeches, marches, and good works in the community. It’s easy to forget that this is a relatively recent development. It took 31 years — until 1999 — for the U.S. to officially designate an MLK holiday. Eighteen years later, there are still many in this country who can’t bring themselves to pay respects to the civil rights leader who came to Memphis in support of a sanitation workers strike, gave one of the great speeches in American history, and then was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

President-elect Trump’s tweet-trashing of civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis, makes one wonder how King’s activism would be received in 2017. For one, I’ve no doubt that those iconic “I Am A Man” signs would have caused legions of angry white folks to create signs reading “I Am A Man, Too.” King, who was disparaged in his own lifetime as a rabble-rouser and communist, would certainly be labeled a “race hustler” by Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. And if King had dared criticize Trump, is there any question that he would have gotten the same childish response from him that Lewis got?

Trump announced over the weekend that he would retain his personal Twitter account during his presidency, which means we will likely be treated to the continuing spectacle of the leader of the free world using social media to personally respond to every slight he receives. It’s unseemly and juvenile and potentially dangerous. It’s one thing to disparage Meryl Streep and Saturday Night Live, quite another to impulsively insult China or Angela Merkel or NATO.

But there are only two questions that matter at this point: 1) Did the president-elect and/or his campaign operatives know about Russian interference in our election? 2) Does Russia have compromising information on Trump?
Trump has admitted that “Russia probably did it,” referring to hacking DNC emails and other cyber materials to influence the election. His new CIA chief-designate, Mike Pompeo, was less equivocal in his Senate confirmation hearing, calling the hacking “an aggressive action taken by senior leadership inside of Russia,” which is encouraging.

But last week we learned that Trump’s security chief Mike Flynn called the Russian ambassador several times on the day President Obama announced sanctions on Russia for the hacking. Putin then declined to respond to the U.S. sanctions, causing Trump to tweet that he “always knew Putin was smart.” Trump has since said that he would reconsider the sanctions, once in office. Welcome to international diplomacy, Trump-style.

Flynn has a cozy relationship to the Russian government, including with Vladimir Putin. Several other Trump campaign operatives have similar close connections with ranking Russian officials and oligarchs, as does secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerman. If any of them were aware of the hacking operation during the election cycle, or, more troublingly, if they were somehow communicating about it, the country is facing a grave threat to our democracy: the corrupting of our national election by a hostile foreign power. Is it possible? Certainly. I, for one, find it difficult to believe that Flynn was never in touch with his pals in Russia during the election cycle. But nothing’s been proven.

Outgoing CIA director William Brennan indicated last weekend that an investigation into Trump operatives’ possible involvement in the hacking operation was ongoing. But here’s the rub: If solid evidence of such election tampering (or personal Kompromat on Trump) is uncovered by the FBI after Trump is in office, to whom do they give the information? Trump and Flynn? That’s not going to work. Vice President Mike Pence? Congressional leaders?

Trump has made it clear that he supports policies favored by Putin — the weakening of NATO and European alliances, Russia’s aggressive Syrian intervention, and removing the sanctions put forth by Obama. Does Putin have some secret leverage on the president-elect? No one knows for sure, but it sure is a cozy bromance. Trump has often expressed his admiration of Putin, saying it’s “a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

Spoken like a true patriot. Nyet.