By Randle Loeb
From Wikipedia.org: Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
On February 21, 1965, former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address a rally in New York City. He was 39.
This loss more than the Kennedy's and Dr. King spelled unmitigated trouble for most of the urban poor and the marginal throughout the world. While Dr. King and the Kennedy family represented the bedrock of established America, Malcolm X represented the aspirations of all of us for an equal world.
Dr. King led the way for a civil society of people yearning for justice but he did not represent the underside, the uneasy tension of those whose lives were tarnished and rudely lived.
What Malcolm X came from was terrorism in America, the wholesale devastation and destruction of the people by the nation's leadership and the institutions that this nation created. He rose up with the grace and wisdom of an innate leader to take his place among the greatest leaders of his time and pointed to what lie ahead if we did not heed his warnings.
Unfortunately, few people understood him or paid attention then or now. Like Nelson Mandela, he had unbelievable obstacles to overcome. Most of these barriers were inside of Malcolm and he reasoned and worked through with faith and courage each of the barriers to his lasting achievement as a person. He made his way to a place in our midst of a guide and spokesperson for the rights of all people and in every place on earth.
My how we could use a leader of such charisma and power to protect us from the difficult and faulty logic of the world in which we are now enslaved? Where we have lived off of our stock piles all of this time of devastation and unrelenting havoc, and where we have forged a deal with the natural world to exploit the resources and model greed and malice, Malcolm X forecast the awakening of the world and how our social construct would cripple and destroy whatever we claimed as a sanctuary.
At 39 years of age, Malcolm X was just ascending to the place of power and awareness that we could benefit from as a nation and as a world. He was coming into his own with people of all places and ways. He was beginning to challenge the white construct that needed to be banished when we started this great experiment of a republic.
He died more than fourscore years ago. Like Frederick Douglass, a century before, he was the greatest orator and leader of our time. That we do not have the sense to value these leaders who come to us from the roots of our civilization and embrace them as our salvation is our greatest tragedy.
We are however, blessed by their heritage among, us and for that we will be more alert and vested in the truth forever remembering that they stood firmly and boldly as a reed in the caldron of the roiling sea.
Editor’s note: Randle Loeb is an advocate for the rights of homeless people and an avid writer and local political commentator in Denver. He was a recipient of the 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.
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