OCPAC e-mail - Selma the movie & Martin Luther King day

[Charlie Meadows]

Members and friends of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC)

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

++  SELMA THE MOVIE & MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, January 21st 2015 will be held at Olivet Baptist Church, 1201 Northwest 10th street in OKC. Our announced speaker for this Wednesday had to cancel due to circumstances beyond his control. However, we are very fortunate to have Trent England, an attorney with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), agree to come and speak to us. Mr. England and his family moved to Oklahoma within the past year from Seattle which probably reduced the conservative population in Washington State by 5 or 10 percent (ha).

Mr. England is currently crossing the state presenting a 4 part series titled: THE RULE OF LAW AND LIBERTY - WHY STATES MATTER. I first saw Trent on the Sunday morning program THE MIDDLE GROUND (well worth watching), produced by OCPA and viewed on the local FOX affiliate, channel 25 sometime Sunday mornings? Trent has been affiliated with the Heritage Foundation and is an expert on the Constitution. His presentations are normally 2 hours, but he will give us a condensed version of presentation number 1, then at a later time we will have him for the rest of the presentations. 

Trent is currently presenting lesson number 2 across the state. His next presentation will be Tuesday, January 20th in Moore., then Tulsa, Stillwater, OKC, Stillwater again and then Bartlesville. For times and locations log onto:  OCPAthink.org/first-principles or register by calling (405) 602-1667.    

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa Area Republican Assembly (TARA) will host their monthly meeting this Tuesday evening, January 20, beginning at 6:00 for dinner, 6:45 announcements and 7:00 they will have State Senator Nathan Dahm as their speaker. The location is the Golden Corral, 71st and Mingo in Tulsa. Reservations are not necessary since it is at the Golden Corral. 

*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  NORMAN AREA  -  The Norman Tea Party will host their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, January 22nd, 7:00 p.m. with the location being The First Assembly of God church, 2500 East Lindsey, in Norman. For the third year in a row, I will be the keynote speaker for their January meeting (they must be really hard up for speakers or maybe just gluttons for punishment). What I have done in the past and will attempt to do Thursday, is to lay out and explain the key issues that will be hot topics during this year’s session. If you have a chance, come on out, I will do my best to make folks mad, happy or both.

*  SATURDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  The 21st annual Lee & Jackson Dinner, hosted by the Clem Vann Rogers Camp 481 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, will be this Saturday evening, January 22nd. Please pay close attention, reservations are required by this Tuesday evening, but you will not have to pay until you arrive. For reservations call Terry Pierce at (405) 326-3850 or by e-mail, terryp...@yahoo.com. Registration and coffee will be from 5:30 to 6:30 with the Dinner being served at 7:00 p.m., the location being the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The cost is $25 per person. 

The Guest Speaker will be Mr. Mark Kreslins, a former high ranking staffer for 2 different congressmen, provocative writer and a regular contributor to Fox News as well as having appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 program. The title of his speech will be:  Secession is not a dirty word!

The purpose of the program other than fellowship and hearing a great speech is to raise funds for camp projects. I believe it was summer before last they dedicated a monument to the Confederate soldiers buried at a cemetery in Ardmore. This was the largest group of Confederate soldiers buried in America (185) without a marker to their honor. Rasing the  funds for the monument was a 7 year project, with the outcome being a beautiful monument. Linda and I attended the dedication ceremony and learned so much about Oklahoma territory’s involvement in the Civil War. If you can bring a nice auction item, you will be much appreciated, if you bring a lot of money to bid at the auction, you will be immensely loved (ha). 

++  SELMA THE MOVIE & MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

Last Wednesday afternoon after the OCPAC meeting Linda and I went to Tinseltown to see the newly released movie “Selma” which is now an Academy Award nominee for best picture. In looking for a word to best describe the movie, it sure wouldn’t be “entertaining” as the subject matter was far too serious to be entertaining. I would call it “COMPELLING” and “POWERFUL”. It was really good and I highly recommend seeing it, assuming you can come away with the right perspective and not be manipulated toward a wrong reaction.

My favorite kind of movies are those based upon true events and the closer to what really happened, the better. The movie is produced by Oprah Winfrey, who also plays a key part in the movie. Though Oprah is a successful business woman beyond what she might have ever imagined, I am not generally a fan of hers. Just 2 reasons, she is really liberal and her unbiblical and confusing pronouncements about God have probably led multitudes down the primrose path to destruction.  

Most of the acting in the movie was excellent to quite good. The actor playing the part of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta were excellent. The movie portrayed President Johnson as the kind of person he was, so typical of liberals who claim to care about the plight of black people, but ultimately, their greater desire is to use them for their own political purposes. 

On the one hand the movie did a great job of portraying the evils of the Jim Crow Laws in the South, designed to suppress black people from voting, educational opportunities, and a fair shot at financial success. Viewers could easily identify with the pain, sufferings and injustices inflicted upon black people as well as look at the ugliness of hatred, bigotry and cruelty foisted upon blacks by the white community. While this is part of the ugly underbelly of America’s past, it is still history and important to know and know accurately.

I did not like the way J. Edgar Hoover was portrayed, something like a sick psychopath wanting to snoop into the private affairs of Dr. King. The left in America hates Hoover and does all they can to tarnish his reputation, though he was probably the finest FBI Director of all times. 

If you will allow a rabbit trail, what I am about to say was not in the movie, but it is accurate history. 

President Kennedy and his younger brother Robert, then serving as the U.S. Attorney General, summoned a meeting with Dr. King. They informed King that his organization was rife with communists and he needed to get rid of them. King did their bidding for a while, but then began to bring them back into his organization. When that occurred, Robert Kennedy ORDERED FBI Director Hoover to begin the surveillance of King. 

By the time of King’s death, the FBI had several file cabinets full of information on him. There has never been any evidence, that I am aware of, indicating King was a communist. However he did interact with communists on a regular basis. I highly recommend the book, “I TESTIFY” by Julia Brown. 

Brown was a black lady, I believe Cleveland Ohio, sometime in the 50’s when she wanted to get involved in the civil rights movement. Therefore she joined a local civil rights organization, only to eventually realize it was a communist front organization. At first she was scared and wanted to find a way out, but her patriotism overcame her fears and she went to the FBI with the information. 

They informed her it was difficult to infiltrate such organizations and as such persuaded her to remain active and become an informant. She spent the next 11 years as an informant, and during that time became the treasurer for 3 different communist front organizations. The title of her book resulted from her testifying before congress years later when they debated upon establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. King. As she testified, all communists organizations she knew of were solidly behind King and as a result she was opposed to the national holiday in his honor.

The debate created a lot of controversy and as such a federal judge ordered the contents of the files sealed in the national archives for 50 years. I believe they will not be opened until 1928 if my memory serves me correctly. 

With all that said, many folks believe the leadership provided by King in the civil rights movement and the elimination of the evil Jim Crow laws outweigh any negatives and therefore, justify the holiday in his name. Personally, I would have preferred to see the contents of the files first to determine if Dr. King was using the evils of hatred and racism for ulterior motives before naming a holiday in his honor.

Back to the movie.

Dr. King was portrayed as a man dedicated to non-violence and displayed such with immense courage. At the same time he was shown to have a deep concern about the well being of his followers realizing his strategy of peaceful confrontations to end the injustices of the day would cause a lot of injury and death for many of his followers as well as the same possibilities for himself.

Not everything in the movie made Dr. King out to be a saint. The movie showed there to be a good deal of tension between King and his wife Coretta. Most importantly at the heart of the tension was his frequent marital infidelities and secondly their sacrifices of not living a normal life. They didn’t have a home of their own and the constant death threats toward King and family members wore on Coretta.

Dr. King’s most famous quotes among many powerful statements was about judging a man by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin. This is a powerful statement, but also a double edged sword when it comes to King himself.

King’s courage and determination to end the injustice of his day is a character trait we should all aspire to. However, the cheating on his spouse is a character trait that should be condemned and something all men and women should guard against. 

Ultimately we are all judged by the fruit we produce. I do have some concerns about this movie, especially regarding the effect it will have upon those who see it. If black people seeing the movie can come away with a greater understanding and respect for the tremendous price paid by the persecuted black people of that day as well as respect for the white people willing to stand with them during those difficult times, then the movie will be very valuable. 

On the other hand, if black people come away with anger in their hearts and minds, new found resentments, a renewed attitude of victimization as well as an inability to realize those things are in the past, then the movie will have produced very bad fruit. Black people of today must realize it is time to move forward with the right attitude to obtain life’s many good and positive opportunities.

White people seeing the movie should come away with an abhorrence for the treatment of black people by other whites during that time. Because of that, white people should determine to encourage black people as well as all people to understand our system of government as well as those Christian values which will allow all people with the right attitude and a willingness to work hard to obtain the respect and value we all covet. A good attitude and work ethic matched with our God gifted talents usually produces a good deal of financial prosperity in our lives. Some of those assets can then be used for the good of others.

On the other hand, if the movie produces a lot of white guilt in the lives of white people and motivates them to do yet another round of guilt motivated apologies then the movie will have been bad for white people. Whites must avoid developing an attitude which makes excuses for blacks and thus enables black folks, especially youth, to continue to wallow in an attitude of victimization. All people need to be encouraged to develop good character, work hard and not make excuses for themselves, even in those times when it seems life isn’t treating them fairly. 

I fear the negatives are more likely to come about from the movie than the positives. Already many liberals, even before the movie even came out, were trying to paint the picture, based upon what happened in Ferguson, as the situation today for black people in America being as bad off as the days leading up to the civil rights movement. Many of these liberals are suggesting another civil rights movement is needed today. At the end of the movie, while the credits are rolling, a rapper is heard chanting his music about the injustices in Ferguson. People that recognize the meaning of justice, know there were no injustices in Ferguson. 

This liberal idea of needing another civil rights movement couldn’t be further from reality. Today, there are many black people in America that are in real trouble, they face real problems and some need help to rise out of their problems. But, at the heart of their problems in most cases will be a resentful and rotten attitude. Under those circumstances almost no external help can turn their lives around until they first change their bad attitude. 

I recommend the movie, but guard against coming away with the wrong perspective. 

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charlie...@gmail.com 

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