Jesse Epps was to be in New York yesterday afternoon to speak about the future, carrying a credential from history.
He spent the late afternoon of April 4, 1968, in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, in Memphis, Tennessee, talking with the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr about a march in support of the city's sanitation workers, who were striking for wages that would permit them to get off welfare and live in homes with indoor toilets. Just a week before, an earlier march turned into a bedlam, with stores looted, the crowd gassed, and King hustled into a car by aides. For King, the event had been an embarrassing, dispiriting rout. He came back to Memphis to salvage the strikers' cause and his reputation.
Seated in that US$13-a-day room, Epps assured King that this time all the churches in town were rallying behind the strikers.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
"We talked about the fact that the safety and security had come a long way from where we had begun," said Epps, a labor organizer who had been sent to Memphis by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
They wound up their meeting, and King declined an invitation to dine with Epps. He was already due at the home of a minister for supper. He washed up, knotted a fresh tie. A few of his people were in the parking lot outside, so he stepped onto the balcony outside Room 306 to tell them about the dinner plans. A single shot brought him down.
The echoes of that instant have carried 40 years. They can be heard around New York in the most casual of conversations about national politics, 2008: among strangers in a subway car, friends at dinner, people on their jobs. For some, the very strength of Senator Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination has dragged the thought of violence out of the shadows of the unspeakable.
A church worker and military veteran who is rooting for Obama said last week in Harlem, "Obama, I hope you don't get a bullet."
A much younger man, Joseph Solomon Jones, 25, held in the same thought high hopes and pure fatalism about the Obama campaign.
"He's very educated, very fluent in what the people want," said Jones, a college student in Brooklyn. "Obama, I want him to be president. First black president, all right, I'll take that. Even though he's going to get shot after that."
Now 71, Epps, who was due to speak yesterday at a King commemoration at Trinity Church on Wall Street that is being sponsored by the city's sanitation workers union, said that the world had been reborn many times since 1968. Yet he sees how the anxiety over Obama's safety runs in counterpoint to the elation over his successes.
"That is a question I am hearing among the brethren," he said.
Modern history does not permit such worries to be brushed off, regardless of whether the source of danger is seen as some dark unnamed force, or simply a deranged person driven to lash out at a Kennedy or a King, a Wallace or a Reagan.
Alma Powell, the wife of Colin Powell, spoke bluntly about her fears in 1995 when Powell was weighing a run for the Republican presidential nomination.
"He would probably be at much more risk than any other candidate because of being a black man in this society," Powell said. "A lot of crazy people out there."
In a speech on Sunday night, Michelle Obama, the wife of Obama, lightly traced the twisting byways of that anxiety.
"There are still voices, even within our own community, that focus on what might go wrong," she said in Atlanta. "It's not just about fear, people. It's also about love. I know people want to protect us and themselves from disappointment and failure, from the possibility of being let down again -- not by us, but by the world as it is. A world that we fear might not be ready for a decent man like Barack."
For Epps, who was instrumental in persuading King to come to Memphis for the sanitation workers, the history of that moment leads him not to worries, but to strategy.
"When they cut down the leader, the work is going to go on," he said. "Get rid of Mrs. Clinton, you have Mr Obama. You get rid of both of them, you get Mr Edwards. A flock of geese will move to protect the lead goose from the hunter."
Loss is an inevitable part of life; things being found is rare — especially when cash is involved. Taipei has provided me with opportunities to appreciate the beautiful nature of the city and its people. Taipei is unique in many ways and this stands out from a traveler’s perspective. Every time I come to Taipei, I am struck by its vitality, energy, kindness, vibrant night markets and bustling streets, but just as I began to immerse myself in Christmas shopping for my grandchildren, I was jolted by an unexpected loss. Something important to me went missing, leaving me unsettled. I
Recently, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) hastily pushed amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) through the Legislative Yuan, sparking widespread public concern. The legislative process was marked by opaque decisionmaking and expedited proceedings, raising alarms about its potential impact on the economy, national defense, and international standing. Those amendments prioritize short-term political gains at the expense of long-term national security and development. The amendments mandate that the central government transfer about NT$375.3 billion (US$11.47 billion) annually to local governments. While ostensibly aimed at enhancing local development, the lack
Having enjoyed contributing regular essays to the Liberty Times and Taipei Times now for several years, I feel it is time to pull back. As some of my readers know, I have enjoyed a decades-long relationship with Taiwan. My most recent visit was just a few months ago, when I was invited to deliver a keynote speech at a major conference in Taipei. Unfortunately, my trip intersected with Double Ten celebrations, so I missed the opportunity to call on friends in government, as well as colleagues in the new AIT building, that replaced the old Xin-yi Road complex. I have
Former US president Jimmy Carter’s legacy regarding Taiwan is a complex tapestry woven with decisions that, while controversial, were instrumental in shaping the nation’s path and its enduring relationship with the US. As the world reflects on Carter’s life and his recent passing at the age of 100, his presidency marked a transformative era in Taiwan-US-China relations, particularly through the landmark decision in 1978 to formally recognize the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China, effectively derecognizing the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taiwan. That decision continues to influence geopolitical dynamics and Taiwan’s unique
RSS