MLK Memorial

This morning, I took a few minutes to venture down to the National Mall in Washington, DC, to get a quick look at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  Not only is it historic, with it being both the first monument to a non-president AND the first dedicated to a black person (I don’t like the term African-American), but it is also magnificent.  Bayard Rustin would be proud.  Of course, I snapped a few pictures.

What is personally amazing is the location.  For years, my place of solace, where I go to reflect, or to relax, or to smoke a good cigar is a bench on the Tidal Basin facing Mr. Jefferson, with Mr. Lincoln at my back.  Now when I sit at that same spot, I will have Dr. King looking over my shoulder.  I couldn’t be more proud!

Morning Shot: April 20, 2010

• This Day in History
  On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime announces that all Cubans wishing to emigrate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the port of Mariel west of Havana, launching the Mariel Boatlift. The first of 125,000 Cuban refugees from Mariel reached Florida the next day.

• The passing of a pioneer
  Dr. Dorothy Height, one of the Mothers of the civil rights movement passed away this morning. According to the National Council of Negro Women, she died of natural causes. She was extremely instramental in the struggles for school desegregation, voting rights, employment and public accommodations (you know, those restrooms and water fountains for whites only).
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  From WaPo, “In the turmoil of the civil rights struggles in the 1960s, Ms. Heights helped orchestrate strategy with movement leaders including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Whitney Young, James Farmer, Bayard Rustin and John Lewis, who later served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia.”

• Oh Nellie’s…Robbed… WTF?
  Several local blogs yesterday reported that Nellie’s Sports Bar, where DC Log Cabin Republicans have their monthly happy hours, was robbed in broad day light at gun point. Borderstan.com first the story, and then 14th&U picked it up. And DC wants to keep law abiding citizens from having guns.