As a youngster who migrated to the East from Tennessee, I remember exactly where I was standing when I first heard him speak. I was mesmerized. One would think young people from the South would know exactly the contempt people of color there were held in by many Caucasians. I did not, but I was only 8 when my family relocated to the Nation's capital.

I had never heard this subject, discrimination against people of color, publicly discussed, and his words had a dramatic impact on me. I know many people are aware of what he did for our African-American community in helping to fight the obstacles prejudice presents, but I have wondered if he personally ever knew what he did for people like me in influencing us to join the fight. He educated me.

I remember his passionately saying in one of his speeches, "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," and I knew he knew his haters would kill him. The only question was when would be his last day, his last moment. When would he be silenced? And so with that in mind, he made every second count. His persistence during his final days at continuing to speak out knowing doing so put his own life at risk is a heroism most of us cannot even comprehend.

And the truly ironic thing is those who killed him did not know rather than silencing the man, murdering him immortalized his words.

There are few people I admire as much as I do Dr. King, and I think your thread holds a timely message for us all.

Sam

Could the answer to this question possibly be found with once again one needing to follow the money?

Ten contractors were the recipients of 52 percent of the funds received to fight the original war in Iraq -- according to the article at the following link. Would you like to take a guess as to which one was the number one top recipient?

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/308-12/16561-focus-cheneys-halliburton-made-395-billion-on-iraq-war

Houston-based energy-focused engineering and construction firm KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR), which was spun off from its parent, oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. (NYSE:HAL), in 2007.

The company was given $39.5 billion in Iraq-related contracts over the past decade, with many of the deals given without any bidding from competing firms, such as a $568-million contract renewal in 2010 to provide housing, meals, water and bathroom services to soldiers, a deal that led to a Justice Department lawsuit over alleged kickbacks, as reported by Bloomberg.

And when questioned about this sticky subject during that war's inception, Cheney casually said he was not on Halliburton's payroll during his Vice Presidential tenancy:

Cheney said Sunday on NBC that since becoming vice president, "I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years."

But, oops....

The report (by the Congressional Research Service) says a public official's unexercised stock options and deferred salary fall within the definition of "retained ties" to his former company.

Both of the above two blockquotes can be found at this CBS news site: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cheneys-halliburton-ties-remain/

So off the top of your head, what do you think motivated Cheney to re-emerge in DC this week to rip President Obama's war policy? Just wondering....

Sam