text:
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Written from the confines of a Birmingham jail cell, Dr. King's letter to his fellow clergymen answered charges that he, and others involved in the Birmingham campaign, lacked the standing, appropriate timing, and appropriate vehicle for protesting the Jim Crow system in Birmingham, Alabama. This initial draft was published without copyright, and is therefore part of the Public Domain. It is posted below, in its entirety, without further comment.
Birmingham City Jail
April 16, 1963
My dear Fellow Clergymen,
While confined here in the Birmingham City Jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine goodwill and your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I would like to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should give the reason for my being in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the argument of "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations all across the South -- one being the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Whenever necessary and possible we share staff, educational, and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago our local affiliate here in Birmingham invited us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented and when the hour came we lived up to our promises. So I am here, along with several members of my staff, because we were invited here. I am here because I have basic organizational ties here. Beyond this, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home town, and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country.
You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the superficial social analyst who looks merely at effects, and does not grapple with underlying causes. I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: (1) Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; (2) Negotiation; (3) Self-purification; and (4) Direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of this country. Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts. On the basis of these conditions Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the political leaders consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then came the opportunity last September to talk with some of the leaders of the economic community. In these negotiating sessions certain promises were made by the merchants -- such as the promise to remove the humiliating racial signs from the stores. On the basis of these promises Rev. Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to call a moratorium on any type of demonstrations. As the weeks and months unfolded we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. The signs remained. As in so many experiences of the past we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community. We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved. So we decided to go through a process of self-purification. We started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?"
We decided to set our direct-action program around the Easter season, realizing that with the exception of Christmas, this was the largest shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this was the best time to bring pressure on the merchants for the needed changes. Then it occurred to us that the March election was ahead, and so we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that Mr. Connor was in the run-off, we decided again to postpone action so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. At this time we agreed to begin our nonviolent witness the day after the run-off.
This reveals that we did not move irresponsibly into direct action. We too wanted to see Mr. Connor defeated; so we went through postponement after postponement to aid in this community need. After this we felt that direct action could be delayed no longer.
You may well ask, Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. I just referred to the creation of tension as a part of the work of the nonviolent resister. This may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. So the purpose of the direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. We, therefore, concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that our acts are untimely. Some have asked, "Why didn't you give the new administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this inquiry is that the new administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one before it acts. We will be sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Mr. Boutwell will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is much more articulate and gentle than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists dedicated to the task of maintaining the status quo. The hope I see in Mr. Boutwell is that he will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from the devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was "well timed," according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never." It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that "justice too long delayed is justice denied." We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" men and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" -- then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us consciously breaking laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all."
Now what is the difference between the two? How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. To use the words of Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, segregation substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship, and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. So segregation is not only politically, economically, and sociologically unsound, but it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Isn't segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, an expression of his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? So I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court because it is morally right, and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances because they are morally wrong.
Let us turn to a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself. This is difference made legal. On the other hand a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.
Let me give another explanation. An unjust law is a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating because they did not have the unhampered right to vote. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up the segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout the state of Alabama all types of conniving methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters and there are some counties without a single Negro registered to vote despite the fact that the Negro constitutes a majority of the population. Can any law set up in such a state be considered democratically structured?
These are just a few examples of unjust and just laws. There are some instances when a law is just on its face but unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.
I hope you can see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law as the rabid segregationist would do. This would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly (not hatefully as the white mothers did in New Orleans when they were seen on television screaming "nigger, nigger, nigger") and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.
Of course there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.
We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that, if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negroes' great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's "Counciler" or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and that when they fail to do this they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is merely a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, where the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substance-filled positive peace, where all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed, with all of the tension its exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you asserted that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But can this assertion be logically made? Isn't this like condemning the robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical delvings precipitated the misguided popular mind to make him drink the hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because His unique God consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to His will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see, as federal courts have consistently affirmed, that it is immoral to urge an individual to withdraw his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest precipitates violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.
I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth of time. I received a letter this morning from a white brother in Texas which said: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but is it possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry? It has taken Christianity almost 2,000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
You spoke of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of the extremist. I started thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security, and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred and comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up over the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. This movement is nourished by the contemporary frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination. It is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incurable "devil." I have tried to stand between these two forces saying that we need not follow the "do-nothingism" of the complacent or the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. There is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged I am convinced that by now many streets of the South would be flowing with floods of blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss us as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" -- those of us who are working through the channels of nonviolent direct action -- and refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes, out of frustration and despair, will seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies, a development that will lead inevitably to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The urge for freedom will eventually come. This is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom; something without has reminded him that he can gain it. Consciously and unconsciously, he has been swept in by what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa, and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean, he is moving with a sense of cosmic urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. Recognizing this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand public demonstrations. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations. He has to get them out. So let him march sometime; let him have his prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; understand why he must have sit-ins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history. So I have not said to my people, "Get rid of your discontent." But I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled through the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. Now this approach is being dismissed as extremist. I must admit that I was initially disappointed in being so categorized.
But as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love? "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist -- "Here I stand; I can do none other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an extremist -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice -- or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime -- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness, and thereby rose above His environment. So, after all, maybe the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this. Maybe I was too optimistic. Maybe I expected too much. I guess I should have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can understand or appreciate the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent, and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too small in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some like Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, and James Dabbs have written about our struggle in eloquent, prophetic, and understanding terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of angry policemen who see them as "dirty nigger lovers." They, unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.
Let me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white Church and its leadership. Of course there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Rev. Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non-segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the Church. I do not say that as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the Church. I say it as a minister of the gospel, who loves the Church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support of the white Church. I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of the stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and with deep moral concern, serve as the channel through which our just grievances could get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother. In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, "Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.
So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.
I have travelled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at her beautiful churches with their spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over again I have found myself asking: "Who worships here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave the clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when tired, bruised, and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment, I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the Church; I love her sacred walls. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and fear of being nonconformist.
There was a time when the Church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
Things are different now. The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the Church as never before. If the Church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the Church has risen to outright disgust.
Maybe again I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Maybe I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual Church, the church within the Church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone through the highways of the South on torturous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been kicked out of their churches and lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. These men have been the leaven in the lump of the race. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the Gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.
I hope the Church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the Church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our foreparents labored in this country without wages; they made cotton "king"; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
I must close now. But before closing I am impelled to mention one other point in your statement that troubled me profoundly. You warmly commend the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I don't believe you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its angry violent dogs literally biting six unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I don't believe you would so quickly commend the policemen if you would observe their ugly and inhuman treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you would watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you would see them slap and kick old Negro men and young Negro boys; if you will observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I'm sorry that I can't join you in your praise for the police department.
It is true that they have been rather disciplined in their public handling of the demonstrators. In this sense they have been rather publicly "nonviolent." But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the last few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong or even more so to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Maybe Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather publicly nonviolent, as Chief Pritchett was in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of flagrant injustice. T. S. Eliot has said that there is no greater treason than to do the right deed for the wrong reason.
I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer, and their amazing discipline in the midst of the most inhuman provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, courageously and with a majestic sense of purpose, facing jeering and hostile mobs and the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two year old woman of Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride the segregated buses, and responded to one who inquired about her tiredness with ungrammatical profundity: "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested." They will be the young high school and college students, young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders courageously and nonviolently sitting-in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, and thus carrying our whole nation back to great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Never before have I written a letter this long (or should I say a book?). I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.


text:
Last database update : 04-21-2014
Copyright : all the pictures are my property.
You can copy and save them but strictly for your own purpose.
You are not authorized to modify, diffuse or use them (even partially) for another internet site,
or for all other puplic diffusion.
You are authorized to create links to MyCalcDB site, but I cannot garantee their reliability in the time.
What I can garantee (exept errors) is only the database calculator's id number (for example: id=777 for the HP-55).

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Washington may be in for a very hot summer. I don't mean the usual sweltering heat and suffocating humidity that are just a natural part of living in a former swamp (or "tidal plain," if you prefer). While the rest of us will be sweating through another Washington summer. Republican Senators will be sweating in their well air-conditioned offices, now that President Obama has turned up the heat on GOP obstruction, with three nominees to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit.
A partisan showdown is looming over what is known as the nation's second-highest court, with President Barack Obama poised to nominate as many as three choices for the understaffed U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in the face of a Republican proposal to distribute its vacancies to other parts of the country.
The District of Columbia Circuit has been at the center of years of wrangling between the White House and the Senate because its judges have so much influence over national and even international matters. Many cases, heard on the fifth floor of the federal courthouse across from the Capitol, relate to the balance of power in Washington and review of actions by federal agencies that affect health, safety and the environment for all Americans.
The White House is planning to pair Obama's nominations with an aggressive push to get them confirmed despite a GOP bill to trim the number of judges on the D.C. circuit. "Republicans are taking their attempts to manipulate the federal judiciary to an entirely new level," Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in a written statement that the White House planned to post on its blog Wednesday as part of its campaign on judicial nominations.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Republican obstruction is wreaking havoc in our courts. It looks like President Obama is taking the fight to the GOP, and doing so in a very public. By trying to fill all three vacancies on the court at once, the president has created a story that's bound to get media attention, and shine a white, hot spotlight on Republican obstruction.
GOP Obstruction = Justice Denied
Naturally, Republicans are already crying foul and claiming that GOP obstructionism is about as real as climate change. (To them, anyway.)
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said the Democratic accusations are "nonsense."
"This is part of the majority's attempt to create the appearance of obstruction where none exists," Mr. Grassley said last week in a speech on the floor of the Senate. "It is a transparent attempt to manufacture a crisis."
Democrats say Republicans in the Senate have violated long-standing traditions by routinely requiring 60 votes to approve even the most uncontroversial legislation or nomination.
But (as with climate change) actual reality is quite different from Republican "reality." In fact, the courts are one of the best examples of how Republican obstructionism can causes real crises in our government.
Republicans claim that they're not obstructing the president's nominees, and that Obama's nominees are being confirmed faster than George W. Bush's nominees were. Numbers don't lie, and the numbers tell quite a different story.
- The Senate has confirmed fewer of Obama's nominees than it has under previous presidents. Just 160 nominees were confirmed during Obama's first term, compared to 200 during Bill Clinton's first term, and 205 during George W. Bush's first term. Obama's nominees make past the Senate Judiciary Committee pretty quickly, but their nominations come to a dead stop on the Senate floor with just on "no" vote from any Senator.
- President Obama's nominees have waited longer for confirmation than those of previous presidents. In his first term, Obama's judicial nominees waited an average of 116 days for a floor vote in the Senate -- three times longer than the average wait of 34 days for George W. Bush's nominees. Some have waited more than 200 days, or even as long as 400 days.
Republicans claim that real problem is that the White House has presented fewer nominees, due to an extensive, time-consuming vetting process. Again, the numbers tell quite a different story.
Judicial vacancies have gone up 51 percent under President Obama. Nearly 10 percent of federal judicial seats have been vacant since Obama took office -- the longest period of judicial vacancies in 35 years. But it's not because President Obama hasn't been sending nominees down the pike. In fact, he's not all that far behind his most recent predecessors. Obama offered 215 nominations in his first term, compared to 247 in Bill Clinton's first term, and 231 in George W. Bush's first term.
The dearth of nominees is due to Republican Senators refusing to recommend nominees from their home states.
It's not up to the president alone to nominate potential judges. Senators have always had a role in the process. Republicans have simply refused to participate in recommending potential nominees.
On its face, the absence of nominees would appear to be a sign that President Barack Obama is slacking. After all, he is responsible for nominating judges, and he did put forward fewer nominees at the end of his first term than his two predecessors. But a closer look at data on judicial nominees, and conversations with people involved in the nomination process, reveals the bigger problem is Republican senators quietly refusing to recommend potential judges in the first place.
...In total, 25 of the 61 vacancies without nominees are in states with two Republican senators, and another 14 are in states with one Republican senator and one Democratic senator. Seventeen are in states with two Democratic senators, and the remaining five are in other districts. That means many of the vacancies without nominees can be traced back to Senate Republicans who just aren't participating in the process - a reality that flies in the face of Republicans' chief complaint that Obama isn't putting forward enough judicial nominees.
It's understandable, though laughable, that Republicans would blame the White House vetting process for a perceived lack of nominees. As Paul Waldman pointed out, Republicans have not denounced each Obama nominee as "a crazy leftist who would run roughshod over the Constitution in their effort to turn America into a nightmare of gay-marrying, old people-euthanizing, zygote-murdering affirmative action."
One might conclude that the reason that (with the exception of Obama's nominees to the Supreme Court) Republicans haven't bothered to say Obama's nominees are extremist liberal judicial activists is because they aren't. One nominee after another seems to have been chosen with winning bipartisan support in mind, and the few that were more strongly progressive, like Goodwin Liu, were offered nothing resembling strong backing from the White House when they ran into GOP opposition (Robert Kuttner gives details on Liu's nomination and the broader issue here).
That's probably because the process has produced a raft of uncontroversial nominees, who get voted out of committee with bipartisan support and little to no opposition. That hasn't stopped Republicans from blocking even uncontroversial nominees, but it's deprived them of any real ideological justification for doing so.
How Conservatives Stacked the Court
Perhaps the funniest Republican reaction to Obama's three nominees to the D.C. Court of Appeals is the accusation that the president is involved in "stacking the court." If anything, Republicans want to keep the court stacked with conservatives.
If anyone knows how to stack the courts, it's the GOP. As William Yeoman's noted in The Nation last October, Republicans already stacked the courts. They practically invented it. Yeoman's pinpoints a 1971 memorandum from corporate lawyer Lewis Powell to his friend, U.S. Chamber of Commerce official William Snydor, as the beginning of the conservative movement to capture the judiciary.
The Powell memorandum opens with the kind of hysterical ranting that we expect to hear from Fox News and the likes of Glenn Beck today -- that the U.S. economic system was under attack by "Communists, New Leftists, and other revolutionaries." But it contained the kernel of the conservative legal movement would embrace: that "with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic and political change."
Conservatives and corporations embraced the idea of conservative "judicial activism." Wealthy conservatives followed Powells advice to adopt the tactics of progressive organizations and civil rights groups, and poured money into public interest law firms and organizations.
It worked. In 1997 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched the National Chamber Litigation Center, to represent corporate interests in the Supreme Court and lower courts. Yeoman's recounts the NCLC's astonishing record of success.
... Today, the NCLC ranks second only to the US solicitor general in appearances before the Court. And its success rate before the Roberts Court rivals-and this past term has outstripped-that of the solicitor general.
In fact, the NCLC's roster of wins before the 2010-11 Supreme Court term reads like a top ten list of the corporate world's efforts to strangle working Americans and maximize profits. Its victories included thwarting class-action claims of gender discrimination at Walmart; forcing individuals to have their claims against big corporations settled in arbitration rather than gaining access to the courts; beating back litigation by states and municipalities seeking to regulate greenhouse gases; defeating claims for damages caused by the defective design of vaccines; limiting recovery by whistleblowers; restricting the reach of US law over foreign manufacturers of defective products; and blocking suits by private citizens against brokerage firms for making false statements about securities.
The Supreme Court traditionally agrees to hear fewer than 2 percent of the cases it receives for review. In the 2010-11 term, the NCLC urged the Court to review thirty cases, and the Court heard twenty-one of these-a stunning 70 percent success rate for the Chamber. In the most recent term, that percentage fell to a still remarkable 52 percent. And, strikingly, in the eight cases in which the Court reached the merits of the issue briefed by the NCLC, the NCLC won all eight. The solicitor general opposed the NCLC's position in five of those cases and lost all five. The Court repeatedly chose corporate interests over those of the government.
Of course it worked. Yeoman's notes that the conservative movement to capture the courts escalated under Reagan, packing the Department of Justice with conservatives who grew up to be conservative judges. Some would grow up to be the very Supreme Court Justices who gave the NCLC several of its biggest victories, and unleashed Citizens United upon American politics. Others would be nominated the the
These separate strains of legal conservatism-the political and the economic-came together after the election of Ronald Reagan, who ran on a pro-corporate platform that echoed Republican attacks on the courts. Reagan installed Edwin Meese as his second attorney general and filled the Justice Department with young conservative lawyers, many of whom grew into conservative judges, such as John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Meese used the Justice Department as a think tank for the conservative legal movement. Its Office of Legal Policy produced ideologically driven work that emphasized a limited view of federal legislative and regulatory authority, revitalization of the takings clause as a defense against regulation, and rejuvenation of the contract clause, which had been used by the Supreme Court to invalidate labor laws in the first third of the twentieth century. The office also urged restrictive access to the courts and questioned the broad federal pre-emption of state law, which often worked against corporate interests.
Finally, the Meese Justice Department, knowing that it had a constituency clamoring for conservative judges, identified conservatives like Scalia and Kennedy for nomination to the Supreme Court, along with youthful Court of Appeals judges plucked from the Justice Department. Reliance on ideology as a dominant consideration in selecting judges represented the fulfillment of Lewis Powell's vision. It demonstrated the fundamental understanding that the most direct way to change the law was to appoint reliable ideologues to enforce it.
Un-Stacking The Court
One can hardly blame the GOP for squawking about Obama's attempt to undo decades of by Republicans' to stack the courts with conservative judges. But the president is hardly stacking the court. If anything, Obama is trying to "un-stack" the court.
President Obama has pressed senators from both parties in recent weeks to confirm a new federal judge for one of the country's most powerful courts, using an aggressive strategy to campaign for a judicial nominee whom White House officials consider a potentially crucial figure in boosting the president's second-term agenda.
The effort reflects a new White House effort to tilt in its favor the conservative-dominated U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is one notch below the Supreme Court and considers many challenges to executive actions.
... In January, the court threw out a decision by the National Labor Relations Board on grounds that the recess appointments Obama made to the board were invalid. Since then, the court has put dozens of NLRB cases on hold, prompting concern in organized labor, a key Obama base.
"It's no exaggeration to say the workers' rights agenda is either on hold or blowing up at the D.C. Circuit, in the hands of a few conservative judges," said Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel for the AFL-CIO.
The court is just as influential when it comes to environmental cases. It has exclusive jurisdiction over national rules issued under the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, among other laws. It will have the power to block Obama's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Contrary to what Republican's claim, President Obama isn't engaged in some nefarious plot to drive conservative judges from the bench. He's doing what every president before him has done; staff government with qualified individuals, with an eye toward carrying out the agenda he ran on, and that a majority of Americans voted for. In other words, he's just doing his job.
Playground Politics
Filling empty seats is not "court stacking." Eliminating empty seats, as Republicans are attempting to with the three empty seats on the D.C. Court of Appeals, is an audaciously lame attempt to preserve an already-stacked court, or at least leave it evenly divided.
It's akin to what Republicans wanted to do to the Electoral College after losing the 2012 election -- change the rules in their favor, to ensure they win next time. Kids do it every day, on playground all over the country. It's my five-year-old's favorite fall back: if you're losing, change the rules of the game.
By drawing a line in the sand and daring Republicans to filibuster his three nominees to the Court of Appeals, President Obama is announcing an end to the GOPs "playground politics." The president may be on the verge of deftly painting the GOP into a political corner. If Republican senators go the filibuster route, they could end up facing the business end of their own rhetoric if Democrats chose the "nuclear option," to overcome filibuster threats.
Meanwhile, as Jonathan Bernstein notes, President Obama has turned the Appeals Court nominations and GOP obstruction into news stories that are only going to get more exposure as the summer wears on.
Once you start going after individual nominees, the chances of the news media paying attention go up, since reporters need individual protagonists to drive their stories. The Republicans' preferred outcome would be that they can filibuster court nominees without all that much attention being paid, letting the nominations languish in the hopes that by the time we get to 2016 the vacancies will still be there waiting for a Republican president.
But if the Obama administration succeeds in making this a genuine public controversy, they'll have to make substantive arguments for their filibusters. And "Obama is trying to pack the courts!" probably isn't going to cut it.
It all has the makings of one hot summer in Washington -- especially for Republicans.


text:
Enter phone number: +86
Free China Reverse Phone Number LookupHaven't you been troubled with unknown people calling and disturbing you quite often? Haven't you been highly bothered and irritated when the banks or the agencies keep calling you for their promotional offers?This is a common problem faced by most people. In today's world when everything is fast progressing in technology finding a solution to this problem was easy. Online China reverse Phone Number Lookup Service gives you the power to see exactly who is contacting you and on the basis of this information regarding the caller you can decide if you want to commute with that person or not thereby cancelling the call and avoiding unnecessary distraction and trouble. The China reverse phone number look up service endows the users of this service to get the information of the caller before picking up the phone and hence relieving him/her of the pain and irritation of picking up a wrong number or picking up the call of some unwanted person or agency. China reverse phone lookup is a service provider who gives you this extraordinarily overwhelming and tremendously helpful service absolutely free of charge. There are many service providers who shall unnecessarily charge you for phone number lookup service, but China reverse phone lookup does not charge a penny for this awe-inspiring technology. This China reverse phone number look up service extends its search criteria not only to cell phones but also helps in identifying callers who use landlines for making calls. However, it has been found that tracking cell phone numbers is a more difficult job than tracking landlines. Nonetheless, China reverse phone lookup service ensures that you can blindly rely on the reverse phone numbers that get generated after the search. The numbers that get displayed are authentic and give correct and accurate information about the caller. The identity of the caller shown by the phone number look up service enables you to get rid of the unwanted calls and disturbances which would otherwise lead to unnecessary bothering and irritation. After the search is complete and the match has been found you will be shown the first as well as the last name of the owner along with the name of the place the number has been registered. The address of the caller and a map of the present location of the caller are also provided along with the name. Sometimes there occurs a situation when we fail to ascertain you with a positive match. In that case Reverse phone lookup tries their best to present you with as much information as possible. In any case they make sure you understand if the person calling you is wanted or unwanted. See also international phone number search tool. |


text:
- Collection
- 1943-2010
The collection consists of both textual records and photographs chronicling the life of Dr. J. W. Grant MacEwan and his personal involvement with the institution. Materials include newspaper, magazine, and article clippings, letters, books, awards, certificates, as well as MacEwan Day and other ceremony and special event ephemera.
Gray, Dorothy, 1941-2012


text:
HCA Benefits and Healthy Work Environment
Learn about HCA's benefits and our healthy work environment.
Electronic Pay Stub (e-stub)
Keep track of your wages and PTO from this helpful website. You can get information 24/7 and paystubs are posted on the Thursday before payday.
Good Government
The Good Government Group is a grassroots employee organization, made up of HCA staff and we welcome the participation of our friends, family, physicians and volunteers in helping to improve healthcare. GGG provides a unique way for all our staff to become informed, involved, and politically active.
HCA Hope Fund
The HCA Hope Fund is an employee-run, employee-supported 501(c)3 charity. The goal of the HCA Hope Fund is simple: to help HCA employees and their immediate families who are affected by hardship. This includes disasters, extended illness/injury and other special situations. The fund provides emergency information, referrals and/or financial aid. HCA employees, vendors, affiliated physicians and the general public can make tax-deductible donations to the fund.
Facility Scheduler
Access your schedule, request time off and/or check your KRONOS time from the Facility Scheduler website, 24/7. Schedules are posted two weeks prior to the beginning of the next schedule cycle. To login, use your 3-4 ID and password created for the Facility Scheduler website. In order to access the scheduler, your computer must use Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher.
Employment Verification
Thomas & Thorngren
Office: (615) 242-8246
Fax: (615) 242-5826


text:
Garfield – I don't do perky
Ty Beanie Baby: Garfield – I don't do perky
But I will do nap time ! |
Current eBay Auctions
* Based on pricing available in May 2017.
* Please note: We are currently updating this value guide. Prices (Estimated Values) are for items in mint condition with mint tags unless otherwise noted. Values drop dramatically if the tag is missing or even bent or creased. If the price shown is $0.00, it means that we have not updated the price. Prices are only displayed to registered users who have logged in to this website.
Current EBAY auctions are dynamically pulled from EBAY and are not prescreened. The fact that an EBAY auction is displayed on our website, does not indicate any endorsement what so ever.
Please read closed EBAY auctions carefully. We do not use auction results if the price paid is outrageous and there was only one bid. Often an auction that is considered sold, has been relisted by the seller.
No warranty of representation, express or implied is made as to the accuracy of the information contained herein, and same is submitted subject to errors, omissions, change of price, or other conditions.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.


text:
Bobby "Blue" Bland was known as the Frank Sinatra of the blues. He smoothed out Southern soul with the elegance of jazz and big-band music, sparked it with elements of country and pop, and influenced musicians like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. The singer and guitarist is credited with modernizing the sound of the blues, but he never got mainstream attention from blues-loving British rock stars who'd invite B.B. King or Muddy Waters onstage. Still, his achievements were astonishing, as was his rise from rural Tennessee, where he was born Robert Calvin Brooks, dropped out of the third grade and moved on to Memphis' Beale Street, a veritable backbone of the blues.
Bland died Sunday at his home in Memphis, after a long illness, surrounded by his relatives. He was 83 years old. You can hear Neda Ulaby's remembrance as it aired on All Things Considered at the audio link, and read Ann Powers' appreciation of him below.
The year I taught myself the rudiments of the blues, Bobby "Blue" Bland's album covers became one of my primary texts. It was the mid-1980s, and I was working at a record store in San Francisco. The vast vinyl library at my fingertips facilitated my attempts to understand how rock music, then the center of my fangirl life, had become a vessel big enough to convey every feeling I considered important — erotic desire, personal ambition, spiritual joy, frustration with the material world. And I'd figured out that the blues propelled the ship.
I spent many late nights poring over the stash of albums I'd acquired with my employee discount, from the early rural stuff that evoked dusty Southern roads I'd never seen, to the guitar-heavy meltdowns I recognized as the source of much classic rock. I'd always end up back with Bland, however, listening to his heavy emotional croon while contemplating the persona that made him such a powerful spokesmen for the blues as a music of African-American modernity — of migration, aspiration and the kind of transcendence that comes from finding beauty in the small triumphs of a difficult life.
The covers told the tale through the image of a man who was both earthy and sophisticated. There was Call on Me, from '63, showing the pompadoured Bland relaxing in front of four telephones, a gold watch marking time on his wrist and a cigarette dripping ash between his fingers, as four pretty women with receivers to their ears — one in each corner of the album sleeve — sat awaiting his response. There were the '80s Malaco sides, with Bland in a tux, welcoming listeners into the kind of whiskey-and-cards club you find just off the beaten track in any Southern city. There was Spotlighting the Man, which showed Bland onstage in full gospel sweat, his head bowed as he squalled and murmured messages of love and survival.
Most of all, there was Two Steps From the Blues — the brilliant '61 release that sounds like the very transitions African-American culture made in the mid-20th century: from the country to the city, from gospel to soul, from the cruelties of the Jim Crow South to the hopeful energy of city life all around the country. On that album cover, Bland stands on the steps of an ultra-chic ranch house in sunglasses and casual clothes, a coat slung over his shoulder. He's about to go in and face ... what? A woman with whom he can't quite come to terms? A domestic life that feels both substantial and confining? A chance to fulfill an American dream that he's not sure he even wants? That photograph showed me how the blues could connect to my own young life — to the process of becoming an adult and claiming one's place in a constantly changing world.
The music within those albums also spoke powerfully about transitions and the far-reaching soul of African-American music. Bland first learned to sing in the church, and his titanic squall was that of a gospel highway preacher. But he could also insinuate like Nat "King" Cole and pour out his tears with the gentleness and conviction of proto-R&B singers like Billy Eckstine and Brook Benton. Bland's melancholic, demonstrative yet carefully stylized singing style also connected to the country music of his time, another realm where stories of home and the heart connected to larger themes of social mobility and economic struggle.
For the mostly African-American audience that supported Bland for much of his career, songs like "I Pity the Fool," "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City" and the spiritual shout "Farther Up the Road" captured the joy and sorrow of life with both immediacy and complexity. Bland's multidimensional music became a blueprint for generations of R&B singers, and more recently, a grounding element for hip-hop artists like Kanye West and Drake. It's easy to imagine these young stars as kids, watching their mothers dress up for a night out while the grave, reassuring sound of Bland's singing drifted through the house. Bland's music is the kind that can school anyone about the incomprehensible depths of love, the importance of dignity and the promise of the kind of good life that really might be within reach.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Chinese Zodiac Year of the Snake Vinyl Macbook Decal
Premium vinyl decal for your Macbook or laptop. Designed by artists. Precision-cut by machines.
Shipped in eco-friendly packaging straight from the source in Oxford, UK.
Key features
- Lightweight and durable vinyl decal.
- Fits Macbook Air (11-inch and 13-inch), Macbook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch), Macbook Pro Retina (13-inch and 15-inch) and Macbook Retina (12-inch). Fits all similar-sized laptops. Size of decal shown in product photo is on a 13-inch Macbook Pro.
- Made from long-lasting outdoor sign vinyl. Our special matte vinyl reduces glare caused by light reflections to achieve a stunning, paint-like effect on your surface.
- Made in Britain and protected by the Vinyl Revolution Quality Guarantee.
How do you stick it?
Quality materials means easy application.
What's it made from?
Vinyl decals. Done right.
We're amazed at what some people get away with when they sell vinyl decals online. From using cheap vinyl to selling products where you have to put the application tape on yourself, there are all kinds of things companies do to cut costs. Beware the dirt-cheap decal! You get what you pay for. Looking for a vinyl decal that looks great from all angles, lasts ages and doesn't make you want to tear your hair out when you're applying it? Well you're in luck. This vinyl decal is made from the same premium stuff companies use to brand their cars and make their outdoor signs. Once your decal is applied, you can be sure it's not going anywhere unless you want it to. This little guy will stick and just keep on sticking!
Where can you stick it?
Designed for Macbooks. Sticks anywhere you want.
This vinyl decal fits Macbook Air (11-inch and 13-inch), Macbook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch), Macbook Pro Retina (13-inch and 15-inch) and Macbook Retina (12-inch). It fits all similar-sized laptops. It will stick to pretty much any smooth surface you can imagine. Metal, plastic, glass, wood. Laptops, cars, windows, guitars, drums, floors, ceilings, walls, fridges. The list goes on and on! Is your surface smooth? Then this vinyl decal will stick down and keep on sticking.
How is it shipped?
Eco-friendly packaging designed to protect your decal in transit.
Vinyl Revolution takes every step we can to reduce our environmental impact. This vinyl decal is shipped in a recycled, board-backed envelope with no plastic packaging whatsoever. This protects your vinyl sticker in transit and helps reduce our carbon footprint and means you don't have to hassle with annoying plastic packaging.
We ship anywhere in the world with great delivery times and free shipping on qualifying orders. Use the shipping calculator button above to check transit times and delivery costs for your destination.
Have any questions?
We're a small business that prides itself on providing amazing customer service. Get in touch so we can help.


text:
Please, take into account that this process may take some minutes, especially when generating models for large texts, complicated fonts and/or with base.
Name: Black Family
Author: Paul Lloyd
Rating: 4.7/5.0 (227 votes)
License: No information available
Our users that have visited Black Family have rated it with a rating of 4.7 out of 5, with 227 votes. Do you agree? Log in or register and vote!
In order to rate this font, you should log in or register first.
You can use this font to print it in 3D, either with your own printer or via a printing service provider. In order to download your text in STL format, you should log in with your account or create one now.


text:
Drop Rate(RR): 26mm
ARK Performance offers high quality lowering spring kits that provide a clean drop, comfortable ride, and greater performance. ARK GT-F Lowering Springs are designed to provide drivers with dramatic improvement in handling characteristics and cornering. Drivers will feel a significant increase in steering response, better cornering grip entering and exiting out of turns with reduced body roll, and a lowered center of gravity while maintaining smooth and comfortable ride quality for daily driving.
ARK Performance GT-F Lowering Springs are designed by our suspension engineers and tested by professional drivers to find the perfect ride height and spring rate to deliver the best ride quality and performance without neglecting the driver's safety on and off the track. Our springs are the perfect combination with your OEM shock absorbers. They provide an excellent stance with your stock or aftermarket wheels, while keeping your tires on the road for maximum grip. Each spring is made from the highest quality materials, with the leading coiling technology, and is powder coated to prevent corrosion. ARK GT-F and GT-S Lowering Springs provide the ultimate suspension balance to give you confidence on any road or course.


text:
Download HP LaserJet Enterprise M605n Driver Windows HP LaserJet Enterprise M605n
Ideal for enterprise workgroups of 10-25 printing 5000 to 16,000 pages per month that need a suite of productivity options and mobile printing. FCC Class A emissions – for use in commercial environments, not residential environments.
Download HP LaserJet Enterprise M605 Printer series Full Software and PCL 6 Driver
HP LaserJet Enterprise M605n Details
The full solution software includes everything you need to install your HP printer. This collection of software includes the complete set of drivers, installer software & other administrative tools found on the printer's software CD.
Relase Details
Version: 14.0.18142.504
Relased: Mar 10, 2021
File name: HP_LaserJet_M605_Full_Software_and_Drivers_18142.exe
Operating Systems:
Microsoft Windows 10 (32-bit), Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit), Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit), Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit), Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32-bit), Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-bit), Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit), Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)
File Size: 121.1 MB
Drivers-ricoh.com provide you the easy way to find and download an updated driver for Driver and Software printer. Select and click one of the links download and you will be directed to the original page software of Drivers.
For detailed drivers please visit HP Official Site [ here ]
HP LaserJet Enterprise M605n Driver Software Setup ( Install and Uninstall )
if you have any problem with your printer and you wanna install or uninstall the driver again, please follow the instructions below:
1. Click the download link for the drivers and software that come by on the web log in above and save the file in any location on your PC or laptop.
2. Then open the file that has your motive force download with double click on the file, follow the command, then the installation can be started by itself until it is finished
1. Select the start menu of your OS, choose the Board of Trustees, and then click Uninstall a Program.
2. Then it will show a page with an inventory incorporated into the programme. Double click on the program that you want to uninstall.
3. Then click [OK], then the uninstall method can run and wait to complete the uninstall.
Thank you for visiting us, and we hope the article about Printer Driver Download can helping your problem and save your day. so, if you have trouble with the download link, please leave us your comment.


text:
Because our pets age at a quicker pace than we do, it is important that they receive appropriate preventative care which includes early detection screenings to identify any health concerns or diseases in their earliest stages.
Pets aged 7 years or older should visit their veterinarian twice a year for wellness exams. These exams are the key to detecting any health problems that could endanger your pet. Our pets are susceptible to some of the ailments that aging humans face, such as cancer, diabetes, kidney complications, liver and intestinal disorders, arthritis, dental disease and vision impairment.
You can be your pet's best advocate when it comes to their health. Keep a watchful eye for anything unusual or out of character for your dog or cat.
Some warning signs to watch out for include:


text:
This is an updated version of the 3D-Printed Ti OSPW for Shimano 9100/8000. This new design has an integrated stop tower for easier mounting.
The CeramicSpeed Oversized Pulley Wheel System has been proven to be the fastest pulley system in the world, providing energy savings starting at 2.4 watts over standard Shimano systems.
The OSPW System for Shimano 9100/8000 is an industry-leading product, chosen by many of the world's leading cycling teams and professional triathletes. Featuring a 13-tooth upper pulley wheel and a 19-tooth lower pulley wheel to provide absolute optimization of the rear derailleur, the upper and lower oversized aluminum pulley wheels are fitted with coated CeramicSpeed Bearings for even longer lifetime and lower friction.
Please note: The 9100/8000 system is not compatible with Ultegra 8000-GS or 8050-GS (medium cage) derailleurs, nor is it compatible with clutch-equipped Ultegra RD RX800 & RX805. Please see CeramicSpeed's Shimano 11 Speed Pulley Wheels for a compatible upgrade.
- The overall power savings of the OSPW System for Shimano 9100/8000 reach 30%-60%, or more in some cases, over a stock setup.
- The oversized pulley wheels have 3-5 times longer lifetime than the commonly used standard pulleys on the market.
- The Shimano 9100/8000 OSPW system is compatible with up to a 32-tooth cassette for both Dura Ace & Ultegra derailleurs.
In The Box:
- A complete 3D-printed 13-tooth/19-tooth OSPW System
- CeramicSpeed Bearing Oil in 15ml dropper bottle
Part Numbers
Option | UPC | MPN | Store SKU |
Titanium / Coated | 05711050052271 | 106320 | 210000017716 |


text:
Software Overview / Link list
Alternative download locations for some files: |
- Legend: (OS): Open Source, (FREE): Freeware, (SHAREW): Shareware, (COMM): commercial
- STICK - a general purpose tool for downloading and installing CHDK on your SD card
- WASP - a tool for swapping SD card partitions on your PC (useful for large SD cards when used with cameras released prior to 2011)
- CardTricks - a mostly obsolete MS Windows utility to help manage SD cards and CHDK installations
- CameraVersion - a small MS Windows tool that helps getting the 'real' firmware version of a Canon Powershot camera
- show_bad_b - a with this tool you can generate the bad pixel list for the DNG shooting feature on a PC
- ACID - the Automatic Camera Identifier and Downloader is a Java application designed to simplify the process of getting a SDM or CHDK build (OSX / Windows, Java 1.4) (ACID homepage)
- EOScard - a handy MS Windows tool to make CF and SD cards bootable with a GUI (handles FAT, FAT32 and EXFAT), developed by Pelican
- LICKS - the Linux Installer for CHDK and SDM, running with Java >1.4 under Linux systems
- CHDK Curve Editor (OS) (Forum download link)
- UBDebug - an IDE (Interactive Development Environment) for CHDK uBasic Scripts
- CFGEDIT - an editor for CHDK.CFG files
- Auto CHDK to EXIF v1.3 package [1] (FREE) - a tool used for converting CHDK EXIF info to standard EXIF
- (Usage: see FAQ; the ExifTool executable is already included in this package; see also the ISO80-issue discussion)
- DNG4PS-2 (OS) - a RAW Converter for CHDK-RAW files
- iRAW (OS) - This is a free multiplatform software based on dcraw. Convert RAW files generated by CHDK firmware.
- DCRaw (OS) - command line RAW converter; DCRaw is the core software for many RAW converters
- UFRaw (FREE) - RAW app based on DCRaw, comes along with plug-in functionality for GIMP
- Adobe Lens Profile Creator (FREE) - a free utility to create lens profiles for use in the Photoshop® family of products (Photoshop CS5, Camera Raw plug-in & Lightroom®). A lens profile describes the types of optical aberrations that exist in a particular lens and prescribes how to correct the lens distortions in an image captured from the same lens
- RAWHide Converter (RHc) (FREE) - High Quality RAW Image to TIFF Conversion with exclusive ACC Demosaicing [2] and wavelet based Noise Reduction[3]
- Raw Digger Raw Image Analyzer
- iRAW (FREE) - is a free multiplatform software based on dcraw; converts RAW files generated by CHDK
- DNG4PS (OS) Mac version of DNG4PS-2
- GraphicConverter (SHAREW)
- Rawker (FREE)
- RawPhotoProcessor (SHAREW)
- DCRaw (OS) - command line RAW converter; DCRaw is the core software for many RAW converters
- dcRAW-X (SHAREW)
- UFRaw (FREE) Requires either DarwinPorts or MacPorts
- Picasa (FREE)
- darktable (OS) - an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer, a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers
- RawDigger Raw Image Analyzer
- dcraw (OS)
- iRAW (FREE) - This is a free multiplatform software based on dcraw. Convert RAW files generated by CHDK firmware
- Shotwell Image Manager (OS)
- darktable (OS) - an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer, a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers
Motion Detection[]
- Motion detector speed test Dataghost's webbased MD-meter (website, direct link) (It's been down for years, so use the Internet Archive version. Be sure to close the IA header to reveal the buttons to run the meter.) A copy of the HMTL file for this test that can be run locally from you hard drive via any browser can be found here : Motion Detector HTML Speed Test
- Usable with Opera, Firefox and Safari, Internet Explorer 6 will NOT work with it. (From forum post: Those 100ms lightning motion detection models, which are they?)
- MD_test2 jonnythe's MD Test v2 (direct download link)
- The forum post is here: Motion Detection too slow?.
- MD_Testv3 Barney Fife's MD Test v3 (direct download link)
- The post in the forum is here: Those 100ms lightning motion detection models, which are they?.
Stacking & HDR[]
- Stacking Software - a table of related programs and the features they have...
- CombineZM - FREE a great stacking software, also listed in the table above (direct download link)
- Picolay - Another FREE focus-bracket stacking program, even easier to use with the same or better results than CombineZM. Also allows the creation of macro photography stereo-pairs by just using the out-of-focus bokeh data from your one-point-of-view focal-plane image stack. No need to shift point-of-view to create stereo-pairs, the out-of-focus data in your images already contains that information for you, it's just a matter of mathematically extracting it.
- HDR Alignment Tool v2.0 - A FREE utility to assist with aligning sets of exposure bracketed photos for HDR methods and for focus-bracket images. Makes hand-held HDR shots possible, no need for a tripod if you don't have one handy. ( bitbucket.org HDRAlignmentTool_v20.zip )
- Luminance HDR (Qtpfsgui): FREE software (for Linux, Mac OS & Windows) to create HDR images & do the tonemapping...
- Enfusion - FREE software for simplified HDR image creation using the power of Enfuse. Focus stacking is an option. (for Windows)
- Rot And Stack image rotation and stacking freeware
- Star Trails - the name says it all
- Black Frame NR - the "Ultimate" Hot Pixels removal tool
- libav
- virtualdub
- rtjpg2video
- photolapse 3
- Time-Lapse Studio
- jpgvideo - available from many shareware sites
- Time Lapse Assembler - Mac only
- CHDK-Shell - OS a Windows GUI to compile and manage the CHDK sources
- CHDK-PT - a nice OS tool for the CHDK porting process
- RBF fonts - FREE convert truetype font into RBF font with RBF Editor
- CHDK development drive hosts some additional tools for CHDK development, e.g. the blinker apps...
- http://pel.hu/armu/ ARMu - A tool to view and edit the ARM binaries.
- PIE COMMERCIAL- Viewer and Metadata tool for Windows, with CHDK RAW and DNG support
- Faststone FREE - Image Viewer for Windows, with RAW (DNG) support
- XNView FREE - a Photo Viewer for Windows & Linux, also with DNG support
- RawTherapee - OS a RAW converter and digital photo processing software, available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
- The GIMP - OS the GNU Image Manipulation Program, a great, Photoshop-like open source application - for Windows, Linux & Mac OS X.
- LDR Tonemapper - OS an tonemapper for Low Dynamic Range images (a.k.a. "pseudo-HDR") for Linux and Windows
- UFRaw - OS a utility to read and manipulate raw images (can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in) (for Windows, Linux, Mac)
- GREYCstoration - powerful open source algorithms for image denoising and interpolation, distributed as a GIMP plugin or as a command line program, for Windows, Linux and Mac.
- Paint.NET - FREE a image and photo editing software for Windows (uses DOT NET)
- PICOLAY - FREE application for generating improved images from picture series
- (Features: averaging images, select sharp areas, three-dimensional pictures, Adding and subtracting images)
- Delphinus - FREE a 16-bit image processing software with many powerful filtering algorithms
- Rawstudio - OS can read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras
Helpful Tools[]
- ExifTool - FREE Read, write and edit meta (Exif) information of images
- Notepad++ - OS powerful editor for windows, with great enhancements for developing / scripting
- ImageMagick - OS a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100); used by many image manipulation apps.
- TestDisk - OS a powerful free data recovery software, helps to recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again.
- Photorec - OS a companion program to TestDisk. Photorec is a file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from hard disks and CDROM and lost pictures from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.
- iBored - FREE a hex editor for disk sectors, but can also be used to edit files, including disk images (Mac, Linux, Windows)
- VirtualDub - OS a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows platforms (98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/Vista/7), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)