Quote by Raine:

Today I pack for the big trip. I am still torn as to whether I should bring the laptop with me...

Abruptly cut from their U.S. relay teams and expelled from the Olympic Village, Smith and Carlos were then sent home, there to experience a bitter backlash -- years of death threats, character assassinations, attacks on their homes, difficulty in finding employment and other related hardships, not the least of which was the subsequent suicide of Carlos' first wife.



All but lost in the moment and the following decades was the fact that the gesture that had prompted such hateful reaction in so much of the dominant "white community" was anything but "subversive" or "racist." Instead, what Smith and Carlos had done was entirely American, like the Boston Tea Party, or those first shots fired by the Minutemen on the Lexington Green nearly 200 years earlier.



Smith and Carlos would later explain that they had walked shoeless to the podium on the afternoon of Oct. 16, 1968, to demonstrate to the world the impoverished condition that most blacks were still living under in America at the time.



As for the pair's bowed-head, arms-raised gesture? Neither a Black Panther salute nor an expression of hate, that particular posture -- a symbol of humility before God and hope for a more just future -- was fully representative of the religious and spiritual tradition in which both young men had been born and raised.

Quote by AuntAzalea:

Great blog Raine - he is just unbelievable. I keep thinking about the 1968 Olympic protests since it is the 40 year anniversary and I found this article by Jim Munn.

Abruptly cut from their U.S. relay teams and expelled from the Olympic Village, Smith and Carlos were then sent home, there to experience a bitter backlash -- years of death threats, character assassinations, attacks on their homes, difficulty in finding employment and other related hardships, not the least of which was the subsequent suicide of Carlos' first wife.



All but lost in the moment and the following decades was the fact that the gesture that had prompted such hateful reaction in so much of the dominant "white community" was anything but "subversive" or "racist." Instead, what Smith and Carlos had done was entirely American, like the Boston Tea Party, or those first shots fired by the Minutemen on the Lexington Green nearly 200 years earlier.



Smith and Carlos would later explain that they had walked shoeless to the podium on the afternoon of Oct. 16, 1968, to demonstrate to the world the impoverished condition that most blacks were still living under in America at the time.



As for the pair's bowed-head, arms-raised gesture? Neither a Black Panther salute nor an expression of hate, that particular posture -- a symbol of humility before God and hope for a more just future -- was fully representative of the religious and spiritual tradition in which both young men had been born and raised.

Quote by Raine:

Velveeta... that is what I am concerned about. I suppose I can procure a computer here and there if needed.

Quote by TriSec:

Oh, and it's another suck-tacular day here in ol' New England.



Cloudy, gray, 66º and more rain all day.



What the hell happened to this summer? I thought we were getting global warming and everything was supposed to be all hot 'n stuff??



Seriously, it has been completely craptacular for months. I haven't checked on the Jet Stream, is there a shift on because of changed patterns, or El Nino or something?

Quote by Raine:

Quote by TriSec:

Oh, and it's another suck-tacular day here in ol' New England.



Cloudy, gray, 66º and more rain all day.



What the hell happened to this summer? I thought we were getting global warming and everything was supposed to be all hot 'n stuff??



Seriously, it has been completely craptacular for months. I haven't checked on the Jet Stream, is there a shift on because of changed patterns, or El Nino or something?

Actually, I think I heard that we are indeed in El Nina...

Quote by Raine:

will! how have you been doing?

Quote by livingonli:

Hi Will. It sounds like the Bush economy is messing even with teachers job prospects. And if you work in the media like I do, it seems like the job prospects are even more sucky. So I am stuck with crappy hours and crappy pay (for living in New York).