Posts Tagged ‘Martin Luther King’
Equal Rights for All: On MLK Day, How RBG Logic Can Advance the ERA
Issue 2836 — January 20, 2025 On this long weekend when MLK day falls on inauguration day, and much of the country faces a big chill, a long overdue step forward for women’s rights was announced by President Biden: the ratification into the U.S. Constitution of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA for short). Many of…
Read MoreIn This Together: The Power of a Movement
Issue 250 — January 15, 2024
Re-print: Originally Published January 21, 2019
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The two movements that have shaped my life converged this long weekend.
Read MoreKing’s Less-Known Speech Teaches 3 Leadership Lessons We Can All Use Now
Issue 218 — January 16, 2023
January 16, 2023: The nation celebrates the birthday of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King today.
For many, the holiday acknowledging Dr. King’s transformational significance in American History has become primarily a welcome long weekend off from work. For others, it’s the opportunity to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy in secular and religious settings, as President Joe Biden did at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King had been the pastor.
Read MoreDr. Martin Luther King’s “Fierce Urgency of Now” — Updated for 2022
Issue 189— January 17, 2022
I honestly can’t believe that my column on January 18, 2021, recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday barely struck the alarm it deserved.
How could I not have drawn brightly the profound contrast between Dr. King’s exhortations to Civil Rights movement activists to hold nonviolent protests and last year’s January 6 violent breech of the Capitol?
Read MoreMLK Inspires Our Power-to
Inspiration is balm for the soul and a powerful kick in the resolve to take action.
Last year, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on his birthday, I posted this call to share his quotes that have most inspired you. I hope you’ll go read them, for I know you’ll be inspired to use your “power to” to take action.
Upon rereading the quotes, I was struck by what King said
Read MoreIN WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY SPEECH, HILLARY WILL LOOK WITH LONG EYES
All eyes will be on Hillary Clinton when she speaks tonight at the Democratic National Convention.
Media pundits and McCain loyalists will be parsing her every word, scrutinizing her every nuance, analyzing every element of her body language for quite a different reason. They love a political food fight. They’ll pounce on any whiff of tepidness, real or imagined, in her support for Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy. The Republicans have even set up a “Happy Hour for Hillary”, lying in wait to whip up animosity toward Obama, whether their spin is real, or if all else fails, conjured up by their Rovian attack dogs.
But while talking heads will strain to see any shred of conflict between the Democratic nominee-to-be and the second-runner, some of us will be looking at the occasion with what the Tohono O’Odham people call “long eyes”.
Read MoreTHE 6 C’S OF WHY WE MUST EMBRACE CONTROVERSY
Recently I spoke to the first “class” of Progressive Women’s Voices, an exciting new program of the Women’s Media Center, where I serve on the board. I was asked about the lessons I learned leading a social movement where I worked a great deal with the media and messages as vehicles of social change. Here are my comments:
Once, soon after we arrived in New York, my husband Alex and I were on the corner of 57th and 8th talking rather intensely with our realtor. A homeless man approached us and asked, “Will you give me the money for a lobster dinner?” We paid no attention and went on talking about our apartment options.
“Will you give me the money for a lobster dinner?” the man repeated a little louder. Again, we didn’t respond. Again the man made his request. At this point, my Brooklyn born husband quipped back, “What’s the matter, a hamburger isn’t good enough?” The man pulled himself up to full height, puffed out his chest, and precisely enunciated every word as he retorted: “Answer the question as asked!”
The lesson is this: when you are making change—and with Progressive Women’s Voices (PWV), we’re changing the way the media portrays women and women’s stories and issues–we do not answer the question as asked. We determine what we want the question to be and start there.
Your passion for your substantive areas of expertise and the power of your knowledge are key elements to enable you to frame the questions as you think they should be. That’s the obvious part.
But the most important thing is that you must also learn to embrace controversy, not run away from it if you want to use your message to get your ideas into the political and cultural bloodstream. Here’s why:
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