Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

General Larry Platt - Pants On The Ground!

By John Ballard



Break time, ya'll...politics is too heavy this morning.
The Tea Party had it's first win last night and Sara Palin's stock split two for one. (Informed investors know that a stock split has nothing to do with actual value but it allows more people to invest at a lower price. Ask Warren Buffett.)



Since I live in the Atlanta it is my privilege, honor  responsibility to report this American Idol phenomenon.
For those who haven't heard yet, here is the You Tube picture worth a thousand words.
It's safe for work, but it isn't Susan Boyle.
For my pre-school grandson and his peer group this song is better than karaoke.It speaks a truth that even children can understand.



 






You want post-racial?
You got it.

What you will not know unless someone informs you is that General Larry Platt is not just some character off the streets who wandered into the American Idol Atlanta auditions.

Well, perhaps he is. But whatever else he may be, this man is a veteran of the civil rights movement. According to a USA Today snip (h)e was beaten during the Bloody Sunday march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery [and] got his nickname, "General," from the Rev. Hosea Williams because of his heroic efforts on behalf of the civil-rights movement.



Here is his link from the Civil Rights Movement Veterans website.



The home-page photograph for this website shows six singers. I am the young man (16 years old) on the left looking at the camera.


We had come by bus in 1963 to a church in Savannah, Georgia to plan a march to desegregate the city. Reverend Hosea Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were our leaders. That particular planned march was canceled and we were singing to raise our spirits before returning home.


This photograph was published in the following book: The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-1968 by Steven Kasher (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), p. [100], with the caption "Singing at a Rally, Savannah, Georgia, 1963, Kenneth Thompson [photographer]". The picture is part of the fourth chapter which summarizes events in 1963, particularly in Birmingham, Alabama.


Although not yet a published author, I have been active in the civil rights movement all these years and have many stories to share.




General Larry Platt is three years my junior and I am pleased to claim a small part in the same movement he continues to this day in his own irresistible way. Eight years ago The Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing Larry Platt Day in Atlanta but the following week that already obscure event was overshadowed further by September 11.



WHEREAS, Larry Platt merits the highest recognition for his many valuable contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and his dedication to the struggle for equality and human rights; and

WHEREAS, beginning in 1963, Larry Platt worked diligently with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which was established to help organize student sit-ins and to fight segregation in restaurants and other public places; and




WHEREAS, Larry Platt, a student of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., experienced raw violence when he was beaten while attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery on Bloody Sunday; and


WHEREAS, Larry Platt's leadership and dedication was again clearly reflected in his faithful and loyal commitment to the United Youth Adult Conference search efforts, which organized volunteers to search for missing and murdered children in the Metropolitan Atlanta area; and


WHEREAS, September 4, 2001, was proclaimed "Larry Platt Day" in the City of Atlanta, and it is highly fitting and proper that this body recognize the significant contributions of this esteemed man.


NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of this body join in commending Larry Platt for his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia.



?000?


We are living in a time of events rich with symbolism. In the same way that Simon Cowell says "I have a horrible feeling that song could be a hit," the last week of news stories has been overcrowded with important stories the media is having a hard time coming up with promotional descriptions as they compete for audience share. (I haven't heard anyone mention that the term "breaking news" is stupidly inappropriate when referring to an earthquake.)



Jay McDonough reported on a horrendously incriminating piece of news that lots of people in high places would love to get lost in all the weeds. He put his finger on reality when he said...



Yeah, I know - Haiti is devastated, unemployment here is over 10%, the Taliban just challenged Karzai in Kabul, and Martha Coakley is likely to lose today in Massachusetts. Tomorrow there will be another half dozen things that will occupy our attention. And the day after that there'll be another list of emergencies to be addressed.


So this morning Coakley did lose and just a couple of hours ago Haiti suffered yet another earthquake, unless you want to call a five to seven seconds 6.1 magnitude "tremor" an aftershock. 

Before I log off, let me add to the smoke by linking one more over-the-top piece by Matt Taibi that deserves wider currency, his searingly accurate deconstruction of David Brooks' Sunday commentary on Haiti. (H/T Abbas). And lest you miss it, this morning's post by Derrick Crowe focusing on Afghanistan is not to be skipped. Before you move to whatever is next in your agenda, at least take two minutes to watch the video embedded there.

Let us now return to our keyboards with some sense of balance as we sort through the noise looking for content with meaning.



Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)