MLK Day - Was the Man Flawless or Clawless?

According to analysis today on NPR the upshot regarding MLK falls along these racial lines:

• Whites - wanted him Clawless - made impotent, and  to ignore the complicity of white America to his assassination. FBI had labeled him a threat to America. Lost popularity after criticizing the Vietnam war.
• Blacks - wanted to raise him to sainthood, Flawless - ignoring his affairs and human foibles.

As reported he was not a serene man - instead a tortured soul haunted by his own failings but still working for freedom and justice for all of us! He experienced love in all it's forms: Eros, Philos and Agape. A mighty mountain shines brightly in the light while still casting a huge shadow.

None of this invalidates his work or message but instead affirms that all of us (as human beings) are capable of taking on the yoke he so nobly wore.

A personal observation - we are all in this together.  A homily from two Christmas's ago rings in my ears: (forgive and bear with my paraphrasing:) "...as far as we know no one is actually in hell and we all will have to go to heaven together."

Recent Shootings and Gun Rights

Coming from a viewpoint of being terrified of guns but also acknowledging that they exist I may seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth.

Someone once told me the first step to being a slave is that they take your weapons away. Our country was founded on the premise that populace knows what is best for themselves. If the police and military get to have 30-round clips then so should every mentally sound citizen have that same availability. I am not advocating sedition but history shows that in some extreme (and not too rare) situations the people must rise up against the powers that be (in history they are called despots, tyrants, etc.) - there is a balance of power at stake with 2nd amendment rights.

The Arizona shooting has more to do with the neglect of our society to the mentally ill. Numerous people were concerned with his state of mind - yet did not know how to proceed. The question of whether this shooter acted alone still remains to be answered. He would have been an easy target for outside manipulation.

Solutions to issues like this should restrict the freedom of the few and not the many. If gun rights legislation is our most effective response to this and other shootings by deranged assailants (and I'm not sure it is), then do it with the least possible impact on our individual rights. Due process should always be the path to restriction of rights.