I couldn't believe my eyes watching the video coverage of John McCain's speech in Memphis yesterday on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. He appeared at the Lorraine Motel, the site of King's death. It was a rainy day. So we see McCain walking down stairs from the very balcony where it happened, approaching a lectern to speak to what appeared to be a nearly all-black audience (many of whom were booing and jeering him). And walking just behind him is a black man holding an umbrella over his head. His image guys must have been asleep at the switch. The symbolism of that, in that place, on that day...
McCain was there to explain and apologize for his checkered past with the MLK holiday. He voted against the federal holiday in Congress in 1983. (Even Dick Cheney voted for it then!) He claimed this week that he was unaware of the importance of King's work at the time because he had been in a POW camp in Vietnam in 1968 at the time of the assassination. Umm, Senator? That was 15 years earlier. You'd been back in the U.S. since 1973. He voted against an Arizona state holiday in 1987, and again against a federal on in 1989. Slow learner - six years in Washington and he still didn't know how important King was?
He finally "saw the light" in 1990 and supported the state holiday against his reactionary governor, who had rescinded his predecessor's establishment of the holiday and said, "I guess King did a lot for the colored people, but I don't think he deserves a national holiday." But McCain was still saying he was opposed to a federal holiday at least as recently as 2000. Maybe he really has changed his mind and his apology was genuine. I have my doubts.
By the way, this is not Tom Cruise with a bleach job (click on it for larger):
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