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01/18/2010
Video: #MASen candidates share dreams, fictions
This morning, pro-LGBT U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley gave a speech that was 100% intertwined with the narrative of Martin Luther King and his dream. In fact, she was invited to give this MLK Day speech right alongside Dr. King's son, someone who knows a thing or two about the man who shares his genetic material:
(NECN)
Now, of course the speech was political in tone. The Democratic contender is one day away from an election -- few who pay attention to America's political process would expect any candidate in this position, D or R, to leave the election unaddressed. But thematically this is a speech about the hope of King's dream that is perfectly in line with the morning. And in fact, Martin Luther King III himself took some of his own time at the mic to encourage attendees to vote for the Democratic candidate as a way of honoring his father's legacy.
But leave it to NOM and MassResistance's favorite anti-equality candidate, Scott Brown, to try to make political hay out this breakfast. He is shallowly accusing his opponent of doing exactly what he himself is doing to this cadre of TV cameras, as well as flat-out misrepresenting her supposed lack of King reverence:
(NECN)
It's 100% nonsense! The truth is that Brown's own record and vision for equality, and his own less-than-stellar embrace of diversity (esp. on issues like immigration and LGBT rights) cannot hold a candle to Coakley's. So rather than take on the message itself, he's shunning her for being the one that was invited to speak at this MLK Day breakfast. It's worse than shooting the messenger: It's Scott's attempt to shoot the message that earned Coakley the invite, so as to cover the one that he himself has been delivering all these years!
In terms of negative politicking, it's Brown who is playing the card here. And as we in the LGBT community have so painfully learned: Equality is not a game!
*MORE: MLK III weighs in. This quote from a conservative paper, no less:
King’s son has endorsed Coakley’s campaign, saying she will further President Obama’s agenda. He dismissed Brown’s remarks as politicking.
“He is running for office and he’s got to say something,” King said
MLK’s son defends Coakley politicking at breakfast [Herald]
Something tells us he can speak a little more credibility about his father's wants and wishes than Scott Brown can.
Your thoughts
It's a shame that she did not more overtly mention Gay rights for equality! If she had, then it would have more CLEARLY shown me where, precisely, the other King children stand on the issue, after Bernice's anti-gay rally for the King Center after her mother died!
Posted by: Wade MacMorrighan | Jan 18, 2010 4:06:51 PM
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