Rev. Danny Fisher

The Associated Press ran a story today about new documents which reveal that the late Coretta Scott King was the subject of intense F.B.I. scrutiny following the assassination of her husband, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Federal agents spied on the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for several years after his assassination in 1968, according to newly released documents that reveal the F.B.I. worried about her following in the footsteps of the slain civil rights icon.

In memos that reveal Coretta Scott King being closely followed by the government, the F.B.I. noted concern that she might attempt “to tie the anti-Vietnam movement to the civil rights movement.”

Four years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, the F.B.I. closed its file on Coretta Scott King, saying, “No information has come to the attention of Atlanta which indicates a propensity for violence or affiliation of subversive elements,” according to a memorandum dated Nov. 30, 1972.

The documents were obtained by Houston television station KHOU in a story published Thursday. Coretta Scott King died in January 2006 at the age of 78.

[...]

There is also evidence that the Nixon administration and then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were kept informed of the F.B.I.’s nearly constant surveillance.

Perhaps the most appalling revelation in the documents, though, involved a suggestion for disorienting and intimidating Ralph Abernathy, Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Dr. King’s closest aide.

The F.B.I. suggested that Ralph Abernathy, a close aide to Martin Luther King, be made aware of death threats against his life for the benefit of “the disruptive effect of confusing and worrying him.”

I would like to echo the Rev. Dr. Josephy Lowery’s statements, and say that I find the actions of the F.B.I. revealed in these documents to be “despicable and devious.” In one sense, this isn’t really news–the F.B.I.’s sordid history with the civil rights movement is well documented in books like David J. Garrow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read masterpiece Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “The only surprise,” as King’s nephew Isaac Newton Farris, Jr., told the A.P., “is the intensity of the surveillance after his death. It appears it was as intense as the surveillance on my uncle.”

American heroes like Coretta Scott King and Ralph Abernathy deserved better than this.

Via the Buddhist Peace Fellowship:

On August 19, BPF’s good friend Mangesh Dahiwale wrote that recent floods in Bihar and elsewhere in Northern India have hit the region very hard. As is often the case, the Dalit people–many of whom are Buddhist converts, ex-untouchables–face discrimination and are suffering greatly in the floods’ aftermath. Rajesh Bauddha, a community activist in the flood area, is responding to the situation. We need to assist him in this work.
Dear Dhamma friends, Jai Bheem/ Namo Buddhay.

As you might be aware through newspapers and electronic media half the area (19 out of 38 districts) of Bihar state is affected by the devastating flood. The records say that the flood this year is the worst in the last 50 years. The agricultural fields are flooded, houses have drowned and hundreds of thousands of people have become homeless, taken shelter in railway tracks, roads and on house roofs. The govt. is unable to overcome this grim situation on its own. The Dalits are the most affected.

The Dharma Chakra Mission, Bodhgaya, a registered organization of the Dalits/Buddhists of Bodhgaya area, has decided to collect money, clothes, medicine, food and other needful items to help the flood-affected poor people with the support of government officials. You are requested to please donate with kind heart in this great service to the suffering mankind.

Yours in Dhamma
Rajesh Bauddh
Founder:Dharma Chakra Mission, Bodhgaya
rajeshbauddh@yahoo.com

Some people have indicated their willingness to donate money. Funds can be wired to the following account. Please mention that this money is for Bodhgaya-Bihar flood.

Please contact Mangesh or Rajesh by email with further questions and with offers of help: mangesh.dahiwale@gmail.com

Bank Details
Account: TRAILOKYA BOUDDHA MAHASANGHA SAHAYAKA GANA
Account No.: 083588
Bank Address: Bank of Maharashtra, Sitabuldi, Nagpur.
Swift Code: MAHBINBBNGP
NAGPUR 440 012

With metta,
Mangesh
Jambudvipa Trust
www.jambudvipa.org

Join the Human Rights Action Center at http://www.humanrightsactioncenter.org and the U.S. Campaign for Burma at http://www.uscampaignforburma.org.

For more on Aung San Suu Kyi, please check out a post of mine from this past June.

Thanks to the Tricycle Editors’ Blog for bringing this one to our attention.

To sign your name to the petition urging the United States Senate to pass Senator Chris Dodd’s Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007 (S1668) to assist the Gulf Coast region in rebuilding the infrastructure lost after the Katrina and Rita disasters, please visit http://whenthesaints.org/.

(From left to right) Miroj Shakya, Ven. Rinchen Gyatso, and me at Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Photo by Ven. Hyun Gak.

After a summer full of travel, I’m officially back in Los Angeles–ready to start another semester.

My pal Ven. Rinchen Gyatso suggested to some colleagues and I that we end our summer in style with a day at the beach. So we piled in his car and headed off to the lovely and quite pleasantly subdued Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we had a wonderful and very relaxing time. And the weather couldn’t have been better–wow! What a perfect beach day.

There was lots of good conversation and quiet time, as well as no small amount of sight-seeing on our way to Malibu. It was just what we all needed to recharge our batteries and everyone was very grateful to Ven. Gyatso for his suggestion and his driving. It’s also certainly worth mentioning that my roommate and good friend Miroj Shakya was an extremely good sport in the company of such depraved pranksters as Ven. Gyatso and I…

So now it’s on with the new semester–my last semester of classes. Maybe ever. I’ve got to stop being a student sometime, right? As S.N. Goenka always says: “Anicca, anicca, anicca…” At any rate, I’m very much looking forward to another semester at UWest. I really appreciate and admire all my colleagues and friends there. Like all the important people in my life, they call to mind something I read once…

…Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One, “This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie.”

“Don’t say that, Ananda. Don’t say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop & pursue the noble eightfold path.

“And how does a monk who has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, develop & pursue the noble eightfold path? There is the case where a monk develops right view dependent on seclusion, dependent on dispassion, dependent on cessation, resulting in relinquishment. He develops right resolve … right speech … right action … right livelihood … right effort … right mindfulness … right concentration dependent on seclusion, dependent on dispassion, dependent on cessation, resulting in relinquishment. This is how a monk who has admirable people as friends, companions, & colleagues, develops & pursues the noble eightfold path.

“And through this line of reasoning one may know how admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life: It is in dependence on me as an admirable friend that beings subject to birth have gained release from birth, that beings subject to aging have gained release from aging, that beings subject to death have gained release from death, that beings subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair have gained release from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. It is through this line of reasoning that one may know how admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life.”