Million More March

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 03:15 PM

Louis Farrakhan has organized a second Million Man March for this Saturday, Oct 15. Anyone going? I was very pleased to be at the first one ten years ago. It was kind of a Million Man March and One Monte. Fantastic! The atmosphere was encouraging and positive, but the Minister's speech was a real doozy. He had 100,000 plus listeners lined up and all he could talk about was NOI mysticism, numerology, freemasonry, and how the Washington Monument looked like a klansman (it kinda does, a skinny, concrete Sen Byrd). That's just a waste of influence.

Anyway, fight the power! No justice, no peace &c.

rollhead · October-13th-2005, 03:17 PM

A million men left inspired and Monte left with what he came for.

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 03:18 PM

I was inspired!

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 03:21 PM

OK, maybe I wasn't really.

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 03:24 PM

Ah, sure I was. The crowd inspired me, the rostrum not so much.

rollhead · October-13th-2005, 03:50 PM

oh, good!

And here I thought you were just being a nattering nabob of negativism.

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 04:00 PM

Me a nabob? C'mon.

Now you're a guy who is familiar with political speech writing, aren't you, Rolly? Surely you are familiar with Farrakhan's famed barnburner of 10/95. Were you in any way impressed with his numerological discussion of the layout of Washington DC? I mean, was I wrongly underwhelmed by L.F.'s mystical take on urban planning?

The event itself was magnificent. So many proud, polite, earnest Black men.

rollhead · October-13th-2005, 04:05 PM

I wrote for Mario M. Cuomo, and he's not into numerology. He's Catholic, and a former Shabbos Goy. I used to write about that -- that and the Blue Spruce.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188...83155&v=glance

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 04:09 PM

Ah. Well, here is the transcript from Minister Farrakhan's rather eccentric '95 sermon. I guess it had its moments (at that length, it eventually had to), but as I say...mostly a missed opportunity.

JamesH · October-13th-2005, 04:13 PM

Monte,

I'm not a fan of Louis Farrakhan so we agree on that much. I think the media keeps "black leaders" like Farrakhan in the spotlight to make icon's out of largely disagreable black men with questionable pasts.

I'm hoping that there are more Barrack Obama types in our future.

That said I have nothing against the march itself.

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesH

Monte,

I'm not a fan of Louis Farrakhan so we agree on that much. I think the media keeps "black leaders" like Farrakhan in the spotlight to make icon's out of largely disagreable black men with questionable pasts.

I'm hoping that there are more Barrack Obama types in our future.

That said I have nothing against the march itself.

It's Barack.

If that's the media's agenda, it hasn't been doing a good job with Farrakhan in the past ten years. He had his moment in 1995, but then he slipped into relative quiescence until this repeat march, which is getting little play.

JamesH · October-13th-2005, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

If that's the media's agenda, it hasn't been doing a good job with Farrakhan in the past ten years. He had his moment in 1995, but then he slipped into relative quiescence until this repeat march, which is getting little play.

That tells me he must not be nearly as controversial as he ages. If he was he'd be front and center on prime time.

Monte Smith · October-13th-2005, 06:38 PM

Now you might be right there, James. I watched Farrakhan on a local PBS affiliate the other night before a friendly audience and he was much less fiery and damn-the-Jewry than he was at his height (before the MMM). His bout with prostate cancer may have slowed him down a bit. If anything, he sounded like a do-it-yourselfer nationalist in a mainline Black church. Except for the Allah stuff. Also, some of the younger, presumably harder-edged, extremer elements of the NOI have split off since the MMM. For instance, Khalid Abdul Muhammad (not to be confused with the Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheik Muhammad) was kicked out of the NOI for being too loose a cannon. He formed the Islam-inflected New Black Panther Party and attempted a Million Youth March in NYC, but then died of an aneurysm.

Gentle Giant · October-14th-2005, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

100,000 plus listeners

At the Million Man March? So what are the estimates for the Million More March? Another hundreds grand?

Farrakhan mattered for a moment, and that was many moments ago.

Root Doctor · October-14th-2005, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Now you might be right there, James. I watched Farrakhan on a local PBS affiliate the other night before a friendly audience and he was much less fiery and damn-the-Jewry than he was at his height (before the MMM). His bout with prostate cancer may have slowed him down a bit. If anything, he sounded like a do-it-yourselfer nationalist in a mainline Black church. Except for the Allah stuff. Also, some of the younger, presumably harder-edged, extremer elements of the NOI have split off since the MMM. For instance, Khalid Abdul Muhammad (not to be confused with the Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheik Muhammad) was kicked out of the NOI for being too loose a cannon. He formed the Islam-inflected New Black Panther Party and attempted a Million Youth March in NYC, but then died of an aneurysm.

Did you ever see the episode of "Weird Weekends" where Louis Theroux follows Muhammad around? It was pretty poignant.

rollhead · October-14th-2005, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

At the Million Man March? So what are the estimates for the Million More March? Another hundreds grand?

Farrakhan mattered for a moment, and that was many moments ago.

I hate to break your hearts, but I think the consensus on the "million man march" -- at least by the U.S. Park Service -- was 400,000. Monte would want us to believe that it was 100,000 and change -- not four times as big.

Gentle Giant · October-14th-2005, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

I hate to break your hearts, but I think the consensus on the "million man march" -- at least by the U.S. Park Service -- was 400,000. Monte would want us to believe that it was 100,000 and change -- not four times as big.

Still not a million, and still doesn't change the fact that Farrakhan is old news, bad news, and no news.

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

I hate to break your hearts, but I think the consensus on the "million man march" -- at least by the U.S. Park Service -- was 400,000. Monte would want us to believe that it was 100,000 and change -- not four times as big.

The MMM was the march that got the US Park Service to cease crowd estimates. It was too much grief, parties were much offended. If you want to call it 400k or an actual million, knock your socks off. I 've been in crowds (I was in that crowd) and let me tell you, the back of 100,000 heads looks pretty much like the back of 400,000 heads.

rollhead · October-14th-2005, 12:24 PM

Why does it grieve you so that more than 100,000 might have been there?

Many have said that the 400,000 was an underestimate ,and that a more accurate number should have been 850,000.

And why are issues such black men taking responsibility "old news," especially when I am assuming even a larger percentage of young black males are in prison now than 10 years ago?

Isn't this something that a cast-iron rightwinger like Monte would at least pretend to support?

A lot of black men took the Million Man March messege to heart, and it gave a big boost to the efforts of groups like 100 Black Men of America -- or is that "bad news," too?

http://www.100blackmen.org/aboutus/100history.html

As scary as some white accountants might find Louis Farrakhan, I don't find him -- or his politics -- to be half as scary as Monte's.

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

As scary as some white accountants might find Louis Farrakhan, I don't find him -- or his politics -- to be half as scary as Monte's.

Thank ya, thank ya. Maybe I'll have my own march. Crowd estimates will be a very simple matter in that instance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

Isn't this something that a cast-iron rightwinger like Monte would at least pretend to support?

I'm with former President Clinton on the original MMM: he supported the march go-ers drive for responsibility, but said a million marchers being right didn't make the hateful speech of one man (Farrakhan) also right.

rollhead · October-14th-2005, 01:35 PM

Republican's don't march.. .they just have fundraisers with the "haves and the have mores."

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollhead

Republican's don't march.. .they just have fundraisers with the "haves and the have mores."

I'm there!

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 03:05 PM

The author Charles Johnson repeats a joke about the original MMM in today's WSJ. He says Black men are the only group ever to have marched on Washington to protest against themselves. That's kind of funny. Kind of true, too, as the MMM was called a Day of Atonement. A la the Jewish holiday. (Damn those Jews for always getting there first). Anyway, I was an observer at the first MMM and not a penitent. I don't know if I could stand around for eight hours on the Mall seeking my own and others' atonement. And I'm not saying I haven't plenty to atone for. If you're in to that kind of shit. Just seems like a mass dynamic like that'd make me queasy. Oh God, Forgive Us in bulk. I mean, OK, I've atoned. What's next, the kool-aid?

Surfer · October-14th-2005, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

I was inspired!

I read this thread title as the Million Monte March.

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surfer

I read this thread title as the Million Monte March.

Yessss, and it is no accident.

Scott Dolan · October-14th-2005, 06:28 PM

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstor...20051013a.html

Monte Smith · October-14th-2005, 09:59 PM

Les Battles, you bring up a briefing at the National Press Club from 48 hours ago when Farrakhan blamed the flooding of New Orleans on bombs in the levees. That's nothing. 24 hours ago he repeated on Fox his tale of being taken up by a UFO. He's real mainstream.

jeff54 · October-14th-2005, 10:22 PM

Given that he admitted that he is somewhat responsible for the assasination of Malcolm X and that he is still a big supporter of the gov't of the Sudan in spite of that governments involvement the genocide against black Africans I can't quite fathom how Farrakhan is able to sustain any support in the Black community.
Not to mention that he continues to insist that slavery does not exist in the Sudan in spite of all the evidense to the contrary.

Tom Storer · October-15th-2005, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

24 hours ago he repeated on Fox his tale of being taken up by a UFO.

"Surely this can't be true," I thought. But I googled and came up with this from Wikipedia:

Quote:

On October 24, 1989, at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC., Louis Farrakhan stated that he had a vision of being abducted in 1985 by an invisible pilot in a UFO and carried up on a beam of light to a "human built planet" known as the "Mother Wheel." There the voice of Elijah Muhammad informed him that the president and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, under the direction of Gen. Colin Powell, were planning a war, which Farrakhan said he later came to realize was "a war against the black people of America, the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan." "I saw a city in the sky," Farrakhan said, after which the UFO "brought me back to Earth and dropped me off near Washington; over to Tyson Corners and Fifth Street I think...to make The Announcement."

Monte Smith · October-15th-2005, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Storer

"Surely this can't be true," I thought.

Tom, you know you can take everything I post as gospel. But wait, there's more!

From John Asman's interview with Min. Farrakhan on Fox News' THE BIG STORY, Saturday Oct. 13, 2005:

FARRAKHAN: Well, I was in a tiny village in Mexico on the 17th of September, 1985. And I had a vision-like experience climbing a mountain there, on the top of which is a temple to the Mexo-American Christ figure, Quetzalcoatl. And one of these little UFOs came over that mountain and I was signaled from a group of persons to come. And I was beamed up into that small vehicle and carried to a larger vehicle, where I heard the voice of my leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, saying these words to me, in early September, the president met with his joint chiefs of staff to plan a war. He didn't tell me who the war was against or what not. But early in the next year, it came to me while I was in Ghana that this war was against Libya and Libya's leader Muammar Qaddafi. So I went there and warned him of what was about to take place. And it did take place. And the following year, sir, I was sitting on an airplane, I happened to pick up the The New York Times magazine section, and it said America planned war against Libya, and down in the writing it said ...

ASMAN: So you think the vision came true?

FARRAKHAN: Oh, yeah, it definitely did come true.

Transcript.